Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 482 - 430

Chapter 482: 430

Hearing his words, the Scavengers Leader’s gaze drifted past Kensaku Fujiki, toward the many Garbage Hills at the side of the dump.

It was tempting, but... desire surpasses profit and rank.

Ever since witnessing the villagers’ homes crushed by trash, countless people dying from pollution-related complications, he had resolved to stay here, to eliminate all these wastes.

To this day, he sadly discovered that the height of Garbage Hill only grew, with no sign of diminishing. The dozens of villages and hundreds of thousands of residents that once existed here had all vanished, leaving behind only the rugged and massive hills of trash and the destitute Scavengers.

This was more tragic than the mythological tales of moving mountains; the speed at which Garbage Hill grew was much faster than that of natural mountain ranges. Moreover, the mythological mountain mover could pin their hopes on infinite generations, whereas the Scavengers Leader’s only child had nearly perished from leukemia.

Seeing the Scavengers Leader’s silent demeanor, Kensaku Fujiki also shook his head, sighed, and, with his hands behind his back, left aboard a luxurious Shuttle Machine with his companions.

"The Scavengers Society is not qualified to become citizens of Anjiu City." He summarized in his report, provided to Anju City Council for internal reference, "Their daily work consists of wandering and excavating on Garbage Hill. Ignorant, impoverished, uneducated, hence short-sighted and greedy, they generally suffer from severe malnutrition and various fundamental diseases—a tremendous burden to the whole city."

A few days after the council member left, the Scavengers Leader continued his daily routine.

He led his people through the same sorting, cleaning, and digging day after day, attempting to destroy the hazardous waste, sell the valuable refuse, and dispose of the useless trash by burying or burning for electricity.

Thirty-six million tons. The Scavengers Leader could vaguely calculate the total quantity; for thirty years, the Scavengers Society had processed so much waste. Environmental protection was always the last thing on people’s minds. When this group of people died from various pollution-induced diseases, Garbage Hill would quickly overwhelm Anjiu City.

Perhaps then people would understand the severity.

That night, after burying another deformed child, with a mix of sadness and numbness, the Scavengers Leader curled up on his own filthy little bed.

He was in constant pain, chronic kidney disease, and relentless pneumonia brought on by the sewage and exhaust, but fortunately, his body was also adept at enduring pain, so much so that he would fall asleep whenever it lessened even slightly.

The shorter his sleep, the more he dreamed, and he hardly ever had a full night’s rest. Therefore, his dreams were incessant, mostly bizarre ones where Garbage Hill would be swept away by the wind overnight, and the villages would be rebuilt in its place.

But tonight’s dream was especially peculiar.

He dreamed that Garbage Hill was covered by giant, robust green plants, their flowers emitting a faint golden glow, crushing all the refuse like pythons strangling their prey, leaving behind nothing but endless treasures and raw materials, the air becoming fresh, and the earth blanketed in greenery.

"If you wish your dream to become a reality..." A weathered voice echoed in the Scavengers Leader’s mind, "...take everyone away, and do not look back."

Awakening from the dream, the Scavengers Leader was startled.

He lived in a daze for three days, having the same dream every night.

Take everyone away, do not look back.

"What’s wrong?" Jiro Sajou visited the Scavengers Leader one day with his sister and saw his despondent state.

"Take everyone away," the Scavengers Leader muttered, lacking the courage to do so.

"What does that mean?" Jiro Sajou didn’t understand.

"What would happen if we took everyone away?" the Scavengers Leader lifted his head to the sky covered in grey-yellow smog, "...what would really happen?"

"Leave Garbage Hill?" Jiro Sajou was startled but realized it was a measure of desperation, "Then... let’s go, leave Garbage Hill behind."

This minimal support steadied the Scavengers Leader’s resolve. He had the able-bodied Jiro Sajou go far to call others from the Garbage Hill, while he himself rode a tricycle door to door, campaigning for every member of the Scavengers Society to come out and leave with him.

"We’re going!"

"The Leader is telling us to go!"

"It’s time to go!" Scavengers called out to each other, and one by one, those scavenging for "treasures" on Garbage Hill hurried down the slopes.

They carried out the sick, the disabled, and the bedridden weak from their homes, tied up the mentally ill with rope, took in the wanderers, and formed a strangely shabby group that emitted the stench of years of dealing with garbage.

The Scavengers Leader watched them silently.

Before the city dwellers dumped their waste on this land, there were villages everywhere, and the villagers were healthy, simple, and robust, numbering in the tens of thousands. But now, only five thousand people clung to life here, dependent on the leftovers the city had discarded, becoming detestable untouchables.

"We’re leaving," the Scavengers Leader turned and led the five thousand out.

"Where to?"

"Where are we going?" they kept asking.

Where to? The Scavengers Leader knew nothing at all. At the city’s border, they would be stopped, slaughtered by the drones sent by the corporation.

There was no place under the sun where those at the bottom could belong.

Why bother creating the Scavengers Society? How much better it would have been not to have seen all this, to have remained distant, daily in the company of books, keeping all his knowledge about pollution control sealed away in blueprints and plans. That way, he might have had fame and lived without worry about food and clothing.

Region after region was contaminated, but what of it? Toil away and move to a better place to live; the countryside is no place for humans, after all. It is a social law that humans must bear industrial pollution, that there are always those destined to give birth to deformed children, to drink irradiated waste water.

The Scavengers Leader’s mind was awash with all kinds of thoughts as he silently moved forward, suddenly halting in his tracks.

There was an earthquake.

Earthquake... What happened? He couldn’t help but turn his head sharply, and the Scavengers also stopped in their strides, looking back toward Garbage Hill following the disturbance.

They were struck with horror, petrified.

Bang!

The Ground cracked open with a huge fissure, and beneath Garbage Hill appeared a funnel-like void, voraciously swallowing it. The massive Garbage Hill could not defy the laws of physics and plunged into the abyss.

Then, countless enormous tendrils emerged, intertwining and stabbing outward, each end trailing a flower-shaped predator, not to devour human life, but incessantly wrapping around and plucking the trash. They could clearly see the garbage being swallowed along the stems of the plants, and within moments, the entire Garbage Hill was submerged by the rapidly growing vegetation.

"Miracle!"

"A Miracle has occurred!"

"Wow—ah—" the Scavengers shouted and screamed, lying prone on the Ground, watching the magnificent and terrifying spectacle in front of them with fear and awe, as nature demonstrated its boundless power at that moment.

Flower after flower, radiating golden light, bloomed from the tops of these giant plants. Numerous tendrils fed the garbage into these flowers, where they were decomposed within the Phantom Light and mucilage.

A multitude of exotic plants, unheard of before, sprouted from Garbage Hill, and after being devoured and churned, the size of Garbage Hill had dramatically shrunk, now more appropriately described as a garbage hillock.

Grass grew, plant life surged!

What used to be Garbage Hill had now transformed into a forest of weird and wonderful vegetation, as if each plant had its method of dealing with pollution and garbage. The swiftly sweeping and scouring tendrils worked like factory sorting arms, handing off different types of garbage to various alien plants for processing.

They conformed to botanical principles. The Scavengers Leader rubbed his eyes. He remembered the knowledge he had learned in the past. But these plants did not belong to this era; they were vegetation from a supremely ancient time.

But what was all this about?

After a while, Garbage Hill had turned into a dense forest, and before the Scavengers had come to their senses, their homeland had sprouted massive fir and maple trees, and from the former peak of Garbage Hill rose the largest, most radiant Golden Tree, illuminating everything with its dazzling light!

Garbage Hill—vanished without a trace!

"We’ve been saved," the Scavengers Leader murmured.

He still felt it was incredible, telling everyone to wait outside for a moment as he wanted to measure the new land with his own feet.

He ventured alone into the great forest, where wasteland and rotting soil had turned into a fresh forest. He had never felt his homeland smell so good, and he walked toward the biggest Golden Tree, where under its glittering roots, he saw that familiar figure again, the man with the mask and hood.

"This makes dealing with garbage easier," Xu Yang, resting a hand on the tendrils of the Golden Tree, said.

"You... you’ve done it," the Scavengers Leader staggered forward, taking Xu Yang’s hand in his, voice choked with emotion.

Dreams too can become reality. His heart was filled with a myriad of sentiments.

"I want to revolutionize everything," Xu Yang spoke calmly, "but you surely understand that all miracles come with a cost, that a tribute of some sort must be offered in exchange."

The Scavengers Leader heard the sound of deer calling, and turning his head, he saw a magnificent stag standing in the woods, the largest and most beautiful he had ever seen, its pale fur symbolizing supreme purity.

"It needs followers," Xu Yang said.

"Of course... it saved our lives," the Scavengers Leader took a deep breath, feeling the lung disease that had troubled him for over a decade easing.

"With the help of these uniquely useful rare plants, garbage will be transformed, and soil cleaned," Xu Yang turned, pointing toward the transformed ancient forest terrain, "but there’s much more garbage that needs manual resolution. A new residential park will be built here, along with a new garbage incineration power plant, recycling stations, and processing plants. Environmental protection is an eternal cause, needing your wisdom."

"I have knowledge, but we need investment," the Scavengers Leader pondered, "and Anjiu City will not accept us, nor will we forgive them!"

"If you go to Nestor Corporation, they might lend a hand," Xu Yang said.

"Thank you. Thank you," the Scavengers Leader lamented, "You have rescued those Witch children from the dump, and now you’ve eliminated these Garbage Hills. My only question is... who exactly are you?"

"A regular person," Xu Yang patted his shoulder, "Come on, a new life has started."

Yes. A new life had started. The Scavengers Leader inwardly sighed, his mind teeming with endless thoughts.

How fickle is fate! It had tortured him severely, yet at this moment, this unprecedented Miracle made up for all the hardships of his earlier life and saved countless futures.

But moving mountains was not the end; he still had to deal with the massive amounts of garbage produced by corporate cities. Thankfully, this had gone from being a hopeless labor to a promising industry.

In any case, an ugly scar on the Earth’s surface was now healed.