Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 423 - 381 Awakening

Chapter 423: Chapter 381 Awakening

Pan Ruiyi gazed into the distance and saw the same thing.

"A small boat," she said, "is following us..."

"We’ve been spotted, let’s get moving." Xu Yang hurried to operate the yacht, increasing the horsepower.

They embarked on the return journey, using top speed, but were still caught up to. They heard the clattering sound of a steam engine; turning their heads, they saw two black boats charging towards the yacht from both left and right. On one boat stood three people, while only one was on the other. They emitted urgent shouts and whistles, seemingly trying to force the yacht to stop.

"What are they up to?" Pan Ruiyi looked around in shock, "Looking for death!"

"Robbery and part-time fishing," Xu Yang noticed their boats were equipped with fishing gear, nets, harpoons, and a variety of rudimentary firearms.

"Stop!" A dark, lean man with a red bandana on his head, standing on the edge of the boat, yelled at them. Xu Yang, however, remained focused on steering.

The rest of the pirates were also shouting.

"They’re overly excited," Xu Yang noted the detail, "they must’ve taken something."

Seeing the yacht not only didn’t stop but was also speeding away, they exchanged looks, deciding whether to fight or let go in the shortest time possible.

The man with a red bandana, seeing they were not far from the anti-pollution dam, immediately started shooting at the two on the yacht.

Bullets whizzed past, with one hitting Xu Yang, but the ebony ring on his finger flashed, and the bullet turned into a white shadow, swallowed by the protective spell, and disappeared. As the sound of gunfire from both sides continued, Xu Yang abandoned the helm, quickly retreating into the cabin with Pan Ruiyi.

"They’ve hidden inside!"

"Blow it up!"

"Kill them!" the pirates on the black boats bellowed. One of them picked up a rocket launcher, ready to blast the yacht to pieces.

Pan Ruiyi had already grabbed the Iron Wings from inside the cabin and slung them on her back, picked up the Great War Spear, then leaped out and shot into the sky.

"Wow—what is—that," they cried out in horror as they looked up, only to see Pan Ruiyi falling down like a meteor!

She first landed on the boat with more people, swung the spear to chop off a pirate’s head, then turned and kicked another man dozens of meters away; his body instantly disappeared into the water without a trace. Next, she reversed her grip and smashed another pirate’s head into his chest cavity with the butt of the spear. He touched his mangled neck with both hands, then collapsed with a dull thud.

There was still someone on the other boat, who frantically steered in the opposite direction while fiddling with a simple radio aboard the small boat. But in his panic, he was unable to send a distress signal, and before he knew it, Pan Ruiyi had already flown before him. Seeing him trembling, she didn’t bother with words. Noticing he still clutched a pipe gun in his right hand, she grabbed his hand, twisted his wrist until blood-stained bones popped out, and amidst his screams, she pointed the barrel at his own eyeball and pulled the trigger for him.

Bang!

His head burst open with his own handgun, and he slumped lifelessly to the ground.

Pan Ruiyi kicked the corpse off the boat, looked around and saw several carryalls on the boat, the fish baskets filled with fresh fish. She looted all these, flew back to the yacht, and then did the same to the other small boat, gathering more than a dozen large and small pouches. The pirates had used plastic bags, waterproof backpacks, and burlap bags to store their loot and belongings, along with plenty of fish, shrimp, and seafood.

"The fish we eat in the city every day comes from people like these," Pan Ruiyi remarked as she looked at the shellfish and lobsters in a green netted bag.

"Desperados are everywhere, enough to deal with the average wealthy men," Xu Yang said.

He opened one of the black plastic bags and saw it stuffed with green-wrapped stamps, half of which had been torn open—it seemed they needed such means to boost their morale on the polluted, monster-infested sea. Another red leather pouch was filled with empty liquor bottles.

Xu Yang went through other backpacks, which contained fishing lines, fake baits, and sinkers for fishing, as well as a lot of cheap and simple tools, and a large number of metal materials and parts for making their homemade guns. Judging from the powder residue, empty bullet casings, and manual reloading machines, they could reload ammunition themselves, recycle resources, and try to save on the cost of survival.

Among the contents were more than a dozen magazines, including "Fishery," "Playboy," "Improvised Weapons," "3D Print Your Gun," "DIY Implants Tutorial," and even comic books and small audio-visual playback devices—the memory cards filled with unsightly content to meet their spiritual needs.

"They could still lead a self-sustaining life," Pan Ruiyi said with a hint of irony, looking at the messy assortment of items.

"This work cannot be done on such small boats," Xu Yang said, turning his head to see the two black boats left far behind by the yacht. "They must have a larger mobile platform out in the deep sea, perhaps a warship or an oil rig, feeding and supporting hundreds of such pirate gangs, moonlighting as a fishing company. Several companies, even giant corporations, could be involved in such dealings."

"With the severe pollution, it’s undoubtedly the wealthy who can monopolize the still-operational fisheries," Pan Ruiyi suddenly thought of many survival logics related to the sea.

"They’ve stolen quite a lot," Xu Yang pulled an anonymous cash card from a waterproof backpack with a total amount of 520,000 funds, presumably the cumulative gain from several robberies. He reached further into the bag, which was specially used to store spoils, and found several brand-name watches, necklaces, rings, and gold bars, all of considerable value.

"This is much faster than fishing for money," Pan Ruiyi’s eyes lit up as she picked out a pretty ladies’ watch from the bag and stuffed it into her jacket pocket without any hesitation, "Ha! Sea fishing is really interesting, quite the experience. Maybe we should start a Nestor Fisheries."

```"Definitely at a loss," Xu Yang looked toward the sea. After leaving the purified sea zone, the yacht struggled to navigate through the greasy, pitch-black water. Just this trip alone had left a thick layer of grime on the bottom of the yacht, which would need thorough cleaning.

Environmental governance was a huge problem, and no company had ever considered giving this scarred planet a bit of respect or breathing space, Xu Yang thought to himself.

In Xu Yang’s view, the planet was already too polluted to recover. If they wanted to heal nature, they’d probably have to seek the help of a natural deity, the Forest Master—its power could assist in cleaning up the pollution and restoring the ecosystem.

However, it was still bound by Northern Military Industry, and Xu Yang didn’t know when Yan Duo would be able to rescue it from its cage.

When the yacht docked, Xu Yang walked down to the deserted shoreline, calling for 102 to help carry the Ocean Descendant and the sea bass, as well as to take away the assortment of knick-knacks and sort them into storage.

"Back to Shijin Mansion?" Xu Yang glanced at his watch. It was 10 pm, and a night breeze was blowing.

"Let’s go, I’ll take you to see my new apartment," Pan Ruiyi patted Xu Yang’s shoulder. "The room is quite spacious, you’re welcome anytime."

Xu Yang was taken to an apartment on the outskirts by Pan Ruiyi. A one-apartment-per-floor design, she had Nestor Corporation buy the 30th floor, as a company asset.

"Borrowing company money to buy a flat?" Xu Yang followed Pan Ruiyi. "Sounds familiar."

"It’s the same everywhere," Pan Ruiyi said casually.

As soon as the elevator opened, they arrived at her new place. Pan Ruiyi turned on the lights, and Xu Yang saw a fairly sparsely furnished studio with an actual area of about 60 square meters. Kitchen and bathroom, table and chairs, bed, smart screen, balcony plants—all within sight.

She couldn’t wait to lock the door, her back against it, half expectant, half nervous.

"Now you’ve fallen into my hands, corporate guy," excitement twinkled in Pan Ruiyi’s eyes. "You can’t leave this apartment until you’ve done me until I collapse."

When Xu Yang first saw Pan Ruiyi, there was already a fire stirring in his heart. Now, confronted with her blatant seduction, he felt even hotter, as though stuffed with burning charcoal.

She was the first witch Xu Yang had met after leaving the company, and the feeling was always very special.

Pan Ruiyi sensed his breathing change and her suspended heart settled.

"You’ve never done it with a woman who’s taller and more robust than you, have you?" Pan Ruiyi’s tone became very soft as she spoke, undoing the ties of her clothing. "You’ll soon know what it feels like."

She was a whole head taller than Xu Yang and easily covered him. It was his first time being so passive.

The experience was unprecedented...

Meanwhile.

After some struggle, the white cat Cali finally found Yan Duo’s location. It had been led on a wild goose chase by Northern Military Industry’s decoy tactics and was now exhausted, lying on the vast cold moors. Its body was like cooling lava, though it still emitted intense heat.

About 120,000 people were closely monitoring Yan Duo, and Northern Military Industry had deployed troops equalling three armies to besiege Yan Duo. They were hiding in their cold-weather encampments, the weather being as fair to them as to Yan Duo, just waiting for a blizzard to arrive so they could seal Yan Duo within the ice and cold.

Using illusions, the white cat Cali cast invisibility and teleportation spells several times to arrive instantly next to Yan Duo’s ear.

"Time to wake up, big guy," it said. "’Dead Earth’ Pomorty sent me to wake you."

Hearing his brother’s name, Yan Duo’s spirit slowly revived, and its enormous body began to move. Its 300-meter-tall, terrifying form, once in motion, caused the entire land to rumble loudly.

The surrounding military installations instantly sprang into action, missiles and artillery were ready to fire, all seeking to weaken, capture, or even kill Yan Duo.

"Yan Duo!" It opened its eyes and raised a fist toward the sky.

The massive sound waves formed a tangible shockwave that immediately swept outwards. Its revival was like the fuse triggering a war, and the entire human army sprang into action, countless artillery and missiles began firing toward Yan Duo.

The human soldiers present were ready to fight to the end.

To drive the Ancient Mystics... back into the annals of history!

The Corporate Alliance released an announcement: An M-level mystical disaster erupted at the circumpolar position in the Great Northern Region, Level: Regional Crisis.```