Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 268 - 240 Poison Master

Chapter 268: Chapter 240 Poison Master

The Poison Master had wavy brown hair, a white mask, and protective goggles. Through the circular plastic lenses, one could see her deep brown, sharply contoured eyes. When she saw Xu Yang, her gaze instantly became more alert and scrutinizing. She put her gloves back on, having already taken them off, and washed them twice under the tap before walking over to Xu Yang.

Xu Yang noticed that the Poison Master had a remarkably fit body. She was not tall, around 1.6 meters, and unlike the traditional hourglass figure, she had broad shoulders like a professional beach volleyball player. Beneath the simple white lab coat was a pale green button-up shirt whose buttons seemed to be strained, bulging outward. Her waist was voluptuous, connecting to her robust thighs with beautiful curves, making her blue washed jeans look very tight, as if they were about to burst from the pressure.

"So..." she first looked at A40, "what’s this all about?"

"Please rephrase your question with clearer logic," A40 said.

"Who are these two?" the Poison Master jerked her chin in the direction of Xu Yang and Du Qianqian, showing no respect.

"This gentleman is my boss," A40 stepped aside, introducing him with exaggerated motions, then pointed to Du Qianqian, "This is Mr. Du, the boss’s friend."

"Hi." Du Qianqian, intent on testing the Poison Master’s limits, took a step forward to walk in.

"This isn’t a place for visitors." The Poison Master raised her arm, blocking Du Qianqian’s path, "There’s nothing worth seeing here, anyway."

"Is that so?" Du Qianqian’s tone was full of provocation.

This was a special technique she had learned from Farosa, to make an obviously offensive move first and then observe the other person’s reaction. If they stepped back, it meant that such behavior could be repeated in the future, helping to oppress those who were meek and passive, and she could profit from it.

"Most things here can kill you in 0.1 seconds," the Poison Master said mockingly. "You’re welcome to try."

"Storing highly toxic substances just a stone’s throw away from residents?" Du Qianqian looked up, as if she could see through the floor to the members of the Self Help Society above them. The place was not soundproof, and the hum of trading and haggling could still be faintly heard, "That’s neither safe nor responsible. I’d love to know what makes you think it’s okay to do this."

"Because they trust me. Can I trust you?" the Poison Master let out a cold laugh.

Du Qianqian had run out of tricks and looked helplessly at Xu Yang.

Xu Yang was still wearing the Cloud Beast, his Nano Armor hadn’t detected any toxic gases, declaring high safety. He walked forward casually; when the Poison Master tried to stop him, just as she had tried to block Du Qianqian, A40 was already pressing a hand on the renowned sword "Fury". The color of its eye tubes changed from black to red, startling the Poison Master.

Who exactly was this "boss"?

A40 was specialized in combat, capable of clearing an entire building solo with just one sword, even capable of slicing through bullets. Its miraculous skills in martial arts were well known within the Self Help Society community. Yet, even a combat robot like this showed utmost respect to people; this puzzled the Poison Master.

"Who is he?" Xu Yang moved to the opposite side of the aluminum alloy workbench, where a backpack was placed. Its contents were already taken out and spread out beside it, including handcuffs, a small flat smart terminal, two cash cards—one white with the image of an anime girl, apparently issued in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of a girl’s anime series, the other was golden but unmarked.

"A corporate dog killed by Seeking Shadow," the Poison Master spat with disgust. "He brought little girls home, totally inhumane, yet he held a high position in a company."

"Is this bag his legacy?" Xu Yang turned around.

"Yes," the Poison Master said, "Although he was scum, he seemed to be quite rich. I’m sure these two cards contain a lot of funds; I need to figure out how to access them."

"Tampering with cash cards has nothing to do with the corpse, right?" Xu Yang was curious about the body in the bathtub, which already seemed to be pre-processed. The Poison Master appeared to be trying to remove the electronic hub from his body.

"You don’t understand," the Poison Master’s voice sounded lazy, as if she didn’t want to put much effort into this conversation, "To get the cash card passwords, I need to dig out his implants and figure out how to restore his memory."

"What’s his name?" Xu Yang asked.

"Are you here to write a family report?" the Poison Master scoffed, "The guy’s name is Eisuke Shiraishi."

Xu Yang picked up the white commemorative cash card, looked at it for about 15 seconds, then slid it across the table towards the Poison Master.

"The password is 040404," he said.

"What?" After the Poison Master entered the password, the cash card automatically opened revealing a hidden fluorescent number in the top right corner, indicating a stored amount of 290,000 in funds. She raised an eyebrow, "How did you do that?"

"Magic Power," Xu Yang said half-jokingly.

"Come on, you’re not the Witch," the Poison Master began to find this interesting, "Tell me how you did it."

"Search for any traces of Eisuke Shiraishi’s name on the internet," Xu Yang said, "20 years ago, when he was naive, he was still using his real name online and left his email in some seed distribution forums, using a private domain named Noboru#mail. After tracking this ID, I found it appeared on a deep anonymous anime forum 10 years ago, where he was quite famous in a fan forum for a girl’s anime. This anime and the character on this commemorative cash card belong to the same series. According to official records from Kyoto Infinity, 040404 is an iconic line of this popular female character in the anime, often used as material in peripheral videos. I thought he might use these six brain-implanted numbers as the password for this commemorative card, and sure enough, it worked."

"I’ve made similar mistakes," the Poison Master said, "Now you’re making me nervous about my online traces."

"That’s why you must protect your personal privacy," Xu Yang said.

"How did you find out so much in such a short time?" The Poison Master was impressed with Xu Yang’s capabilities, "How did you do it?"

"Implants," Xu Yang said.

"Hacker," the Poison Master nodded, her curiosity about Xu Yang growing, "What about the other card?" She looked towards the other golden unmarked cash card, which seemed to store even more funds.

He picked it up and examined it.

"Don’t even think about it," Xu Yang said, "This card has been set with an alarm program. Once this man’s vital signs disappear, the locator on the card will be triggered."

"Locator?" The Poison Master was taken aback, "Who does it notify?"

"The Metropolitan Bounty System," Xu Yang put the card down, "If I’m not mistaken, a retrieval mission has already been automatically generated on the Anjiu City bounty list. Someone will come to attack this factory; all the funds on this card have been auto-uploaded as the bounty’s prize money, amounting to about 1 million."

"..." The Poison Master quickly took out her phone from her pocket to check the current reports in Anjiu City. She immediately turned to A40, "He’s right, we’ve been targeted."

"Send ’em my way, and I’ll kill ’em," A40 said carelessly, "Who is it?"

"A group of mercenaries called ’Chaos Legion’ has already taken on the job on the website," The Poison Master kept checking the data.

"Sounds like a good fight," A40 bounced on the spot, "Really?"

"They have hundreds of people," The Poison Master’s tone was a bit uneasy, "and a few military drones and combat robots. If they attack the factory... the consequences would be unthinkable."

The Poison Master took off her gloves.

"Is there time to destroy this cash card?" The Poison Master asked Xu Yang.

"Destroying it would certainly help, but it’s too late, the locator program has been running for 9 hours. Unless we could blink and move everyone out of the factory instantly, it’s useless," Xu Yang fiddled with the gold cash card, "Just prepare for battle."

Xu Yang also slid the cash card across the table to the Poison Master, who bent it in half and threw it into the ice water, letting it sink along with the dead company man.

Thinking of the mercenaries targeting the Self Help Society, the Poison Master furrowed her brow; the mask covered most of her face, but her concern was still visible.

"Can you still talk?" Du Qianqian sneered.

"If you can’t help, then please, save your breath, thank you. We might have a tough fight coming up," The Poison Master pulled out a cabinet from under the console, filled with several sealed light-proof black bottles.

"Poison?" Xu Yang observed the bottles, which gave him a decidedly dangerous feeling.

"The most potent kind, mixed with my magic power," the Poison Master placed the bottles on the table, "Breathing, touching, or swallowing by mistake, even a little bit will cause fatal damage, irreversibly so, and undetectable by technological means. Its toxicological mechanism has not yet been recorded by any medical company. This is my poison."

"You’re planning to use poison in the Colosseum?" Xu Yang asked A40, "With such a method, you could easily cut your way to the final and win the championship, becoming a powerful fighter who delivers deadly blows in any form of combat."

Poison! A40 thought. That’s just dishonorable!

But an enemy who can be defeated by mere "poison" is not strong in the first place!

Defeating the weak in battle is the natural order of things!

"Powerful poison!" A40 exclaimed, "That’s incredibly convenient. Please, make sure to apply it to my blade!"