Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 263 - 235: The Fox’s Tail

Chapter 263: Chapter 235: The Fox’s Tail

Mingge Mountain is located in the western part of the Archipelago Continent and is also the current venue for the ceremony. This massive mountain was once the homeland of monsters, but as the monsters became extinct, the mountain itself fell into obscurity. Only the Eternal Cherry Blossom Shrine, located halfway up the mountain, remains prosperous.

"All people of no small significance," Miyazato Kazama said, more familiar with them.

The first to descend was a woman with an expensive attire, light golden dyed hair, a pair of conspicuous earrings, sunglasses, a fur coat draped over her, hands in pockets, and high heels. She strode toward the shrine with steps so confident they bordered on arrogance.

"Such an arrogant woman," Shallow Dream commented. "It almost seems like she’s the president herself!"

"After all, that is... Tenjouin Zina," Miyazato Kazama explained.

"I remember she’s the most powerful woman in the Archipelago Continent," Farosa said with a slight frown, glancing at Xu Yang.

"The Dominator Witch, whose ability is to stop everything in motion," Xu Yang nodded. "From what’s publicly known about her combat power, she would certainly be the strongest, representing the noble faction within Kyoto Infinity."

Immediately after, a large Shuttle Machine slowly descended, bearing the name Xisheng on its body.

Xisheng!

With the arrival of this Shuttle Machine, the atmosphere on site instantly hit a new peak, naturally boiling with excitement. The sound of filming erupted as media from various organizations, held back by security staff, vied with each other to get footage. Drones filled the sky, kept out by electromagnetic barriers, swarming like wild bees.

It seems that there are also people inside Xisheng who want to understand the current situation of Kyoto Infinity, Xu Yang thought to himself. Probably like Nestor Corporation, they’re looking to see how much strength Kyoto Infinity has left.

However, the number of people disembarking from the Shuttle Machine was more than Xu Yang had anticipated.

"Kanako is here too," Lila observed. "Kojima Kanako. And Kurokawa Kana, the most likely successor of Xisheng. Along with Honma Noriko’s great-granddaughter, Kamibayashi Himei, who usually takes care of their family’s interests within Kyoto Infinity."

"Who’s that?" Farosa pointed at a woman following behind Kurokawa Kana, wearing wooden sandals, clad in a long white robe, and donning a bamboo hat and veil. Despite the strange attire, she felt like she knew her.

"..." Lila carefully observed the image information on the screen, enlarged the key frames, caught all relevant information, and used her own electronic processor to remodel it into an image that she then shared with Farosa’s phone.

"Xylophia..." Farosa saw the image Lila sent.

"Is this a friend of yours from the past?" Xu Yang asked, observing that the bamboo-hat lady simply stood among the opulent men and women of Xisheng Group, quiet and unobtrusive, vanishing into thin air like smoke.

"I really want to be there," Farosa said with a cold laugh. "To meet her."

"Xisheng sent too many people..." Xu Yang pondered, "...The scale is too grand, it shows that Xisheng Capital hasn’t given up on Kyoto Infinity. But why have they stopped supporting Black Fire Innovation now?"

"Perhaps they think they cannot control Black Fire Innovation," Farosa speculated.

Now, Xu Yang also fully understood why today’s live broadcast was so grand. It seemed that Kirino Reisei had already communicated with Xisheng’s people, and Xisheng had changed their stance, in turn supporting the continuation of the war by Kyoto Infinity. This public display of Xisheng’s stance was also meant to garner more investment and support for Kyoto Infinity.

Kirino Reisei’s ceremonial broadcast was truly influential, with its economic and political significance far exceeding its formal significance. It signified that although Kyoto Infinity had suffered severe blows, it still had the potential to rise again.

In front of the Eternal Cherry Blossom Shrine, investors and corporate members dressed in black suits watched as Kirino Reisei was carried into the shrine by Akita Takashi. The young and vibrant new president alongside the Sakura Witch, who had served many predecessors, reignited the buzz around the Kyoto Infinity brand.

"The face and hands are from different people," Lila stated.

"What?" Xu Yang was puzzled.

"That president," Lila whispered, "has a face and hands that belong to two different people."

"Plastic surgery or a head swap?" Xu Yang felt a shiver down his spine.

"We need to observe further," Lila said.

Having ascended to the rank of Dominator Witch, Lila’s perception had become even more refined. Coupled with her own high-precision information processing chip, she was able to capture every detail of the ritual unfolding before her, without overlooking the slightest detail. Lila’s method of perceiving the world was now entirely different from that of others, and at this moment, she felt fortunate to have transcended the limitations of a biological brain. Otherwise, she certainly would have grown weary of everything, as some things lose their appeal once their mystery is gone.

Just like the most critical part of the ceremony where Kirino Reisei and Akita Takashi were doing what exactly inside the shrine was unknown to all, leaving everyone to their wild imaginations. On the deep anonymous network, experienced teams were already hastily synthesising videos on related topics, including Black Fire Innovation’s smooth entry into Shangjing and Kirino Reisei being tied up and delivered to Black Fire Innovation’s Chief Executive Officer, Jose Alonso.

"Why is everyone just waiting outside?" 102 looked at the images on the screen, "Aren’t they impatient?"

"They have to wait. The people attending the ceremony today have, in effect, signed their name on the same agreement," murmured Miyazato Kazama, "Signifying that they will advance or retreat together... they are willing to stand in their respective positions and fight alongside Kyoto Infinity. The four core factions of Kirino Reisei’s Elder Faction, Tenjouin Zina’s Aristocratic Faction, Kamibayashi Himei’s Xisheng Faction, and Akita Takashi’s Overseas Faction are now unbreakably united. The reign of Kyoto Infinity will continue."

By the second half of the ceremony, Akita Takashi emerged from the shrine satisfied. The investors and media professionals waiting outside chuckled knowingly, and Akita Takashi was also relaxed, waving to everyone.

After being reminded by Lila, Xu Yang carefully observed the man’s cheeks and hands, but couldn’t see any difference for the moment.

Shortly thereafter, Akita Takashi began to announce key affairs of Kyoto Infinity. During this, Xu Yang noticed that Tenjouin Zina appeared irritable, glancing toward the direction of the shrine as if Kirino Reisei was more worthy of her attention.

Akita Takashi’s speech was rather lengthy and the Little Witches lost their patience, dispersing one after another. Xu Yang also turned his attention back to cracking the mystery of the "Hundred-eyes Demon."

Xu Yang’s Digital Mind was running at full power, and after a long period of work, he began to feel his body heat up. Thus, he moved to the specially designed cooling room to continue his work under the protection of 0°C air conditioning and ice blocks, gradually uncovering the traces of the saboteur lurking in the shadows.

Lila stood in the cold storage room, accompanying Xu Yang, watching countless lines of code sweep across the screen. She also calculated in her central processor, assisting him with the work.

"Narrow down the key analysis period to the third week of August," Xu Yang and Lila working together, they were comparing 240,000 lines of statements at the same time. As an artificial intelligence, the Hundred-eyes Demon had inherent differences between its self-generated logic and human-edited logic. Therefore, anyone attempting to make changes would inadvertently leave flaws in its self-generated logs.

"The logs from August 14th and 17th are abnormal," Lila said, keeping up with Xu Yang’s thought process as she watched his work.

"Got it," Xu Yang was already able to roughly pinpoint who was causing trouble in the shadows. Suddenly, he thought of Century Pure Land and, using the access that Kirino Reisei had granted him, he compared the network security work records of Kyoto Infinity from those days with information in Century Pure Land, "...Although there is no information in the database, Century Pure Land recorded the personnel’s movements."

"Are there video records?" Lila asked.

"Yes... a blurry shadow," Xu Yang located the camera of the day, where a figure hurried past a corner and into the machine room, appearing on screen for only about 0.3 seconds.

Lila observed for a while.

"Employee number is T03939," she said. "Considering the ghosting issues with these types of cameras, it could also be T03937."

Based on Lila’s observation results, Xu Yang investigated the two Kyoto Infinity employees. T03939 indeed worked in the Hundred-eyes Demon’s machine room as a routine maintenance staff. T03937 held the same position, though twice the age of the former, at 45 years old.

"Someone entered the Hundred-eyes Demon’s machine room that day," Xu Yang deduced, "carried out an unrecorded modification, but deleted their operation record afterwards, replacing it with a pre-prepared fake log."

Checking their work status of that day would reveal the true suspect. Thanks to the Century Pure Land System’s meticulous around-the-clock monitoring of every company person, T03939 had a solid alibi; he was being scolded by his section chief during the time of the incident. T03937, however, went to the restroom and stayed longer than usual, providing ample time to commit the deed.

Similarly, T03937 continued to work diligently for the next 8 days, extremely honest, but on the 9th day, he did not return to his station after getting off work. Instead, he took a colleague’s car to a barbecue restaurant, and after the meal, he took another taxi to a villa in the Suburbs of Shangjing, Xi Long Mountain number 89, where he stayed for 20 minutes before returning to the company.

"The luxury villa circle of Xi Long Mountain represents the epitome of luxury living on the Archipelago Continent," Lila said.

Xu Yang couldn’t help but investigate the ownership status of the Xi Long Mountain number 89 villa. Although it was confidential, his current condition was excellent, so he cracked the encryption key, and carefully hacked into the corresponding real estate company’s subnet to check the contract copy.

After reading it, Xu Yang gently closed the terminal.

"Turn up the air conditioning," he stretched lazily, "This is Tenjouin Zina’s house."