Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 484 - 432 Investigation Strategy

Chapter 484: Chapter 432 Investigation Strategy

The senior members and strategic analysts of the New Xisheng Group gathered in the conference room of the Xisheng Shrine to discuss how to defeat the Nestor Corporation.

"This obvious collusion with the Mystics must be put to an end," Witch Yuan Zhenzhen reported at the internal meeting. "The huge change on Garbage Hill undoubtedly stems from a supernatural, ancient divine power. Now, the former members of the garbage dump have signed agreements with the Nestor Corporation and started to renovate and expand garbage-to-energy plants, sorting stations, and recycling factories with the ’assistance’ of Nestor Corporation, purchasing large numbers of small nearshore vessels to collect garbage from the sea... All these events reveal the role of Nestor Corporation in fanning the flames from behind."

"The Chika Island and Yokozuna, purchased by our company, are already in different ports, ready to set sail," reported the head of security at New Xisheng Group. "We will definitely achieve comprehensive victory in any form of corporate warfare."

"Nestor Corporation has monopolized many affairs in Anjiu City, repeatedly ignoring our overtures. Perhaps it is time to administer some punishment," continued Yuan Zhenzhen. She enjoyed the feeling of speaking confidently in front of other investors and directors as a witch, which made her feel even more confident. The deep bond between supernatural powers and financial capital was a more perfect combination than any other.

"If they are so resistant to persuasion, indeed, they deserve a lesson." Yuan Chaozong was relaxed, having a good daughter was more important than anything, "Show everyone what you can do, Zhenzhen."

"Yes," Yuan Zhenzhen nodded.

The thoroughly remodeled Quantum Warrior strode in, its mind module having undergone substantial revision by the research center of the New Xisheng Group. The original mental programming and memory archives had been wiped and replaced with the standard mind module of a Synthetic Human Warrior, preserving its extraordinary martial skills while maintaining the highest level of loyalty.

In its hand, it carried a Scavenger who looked disheveled. Before entering the conference room, he was washed clean, possibly the cleanest scrub he had ever had in his life. He was dressed in a white pollution suit from head to toe to prevent the off-putting smell and stench emanating from his body from disturbing people and spreading diseases.

"This person is an ordinary member of the Scavengers Society," explained Yuan Zhenzhen. "We promised him a huge reward to quietly leave the society, take a roundabout way to avoid Anjiu City, and then arrive in Shangjing. He should be able to reveal some important information for us."

"How are you going to get him to disclose those deepest secrets?" A director asked curiously.

Yuan Zhenzhen smiled slightly, reached out her hand to press on the head of the Scavenger through the pollution suit, closed her eyes, as if performing some important ritual, and the eyes of the Scavenger also turned blank, completely stunned.

Soon, Yuan Zhenzhen withdrew her hand, and the Scavenger gasped for air, shook his head vigorously, as if struggling with some invisible monster, or enduring great pain.

He suddenly came to his senses, and immediately showed an excited smile to everyone.

"Report!" he greeted the crowd, "Ready to receive orders at any time."

"How is this done?" The executive director marveled, "It’s like he’s been completely transformed."

"Magic power," Yuan Zhenzhen smiled. "Now, tell us the intelligence you know. Has the Scavengers Society experienced any events related to mysticism?"

"Yes, there was a masked stranger," he said with certainty. "He visited the Scavengers Society and bought many child witches. This is the most magical thing I know about the Scavengers Society. There’s nothing unusual other than the day-to-day."

"Do you remember what the stranger was like?" Yuan Zhenzhen pressed on.

"Uh, he wore a ghost mask, dressed in a black long-sleeved outfit, like a street samurai, but he was silent and serious, not particularly extraordinary," he said.

"""

"Honma Noriko previously initiated an investigation into Anjiu City," Yuan Zhenzhen turned to the other attendees. "There’s no doubt that Anjiu City harbors a complex enigma that’s hard to decipher, with powerful ancient lifeforms, Witches, Nestor Corporation, and various technicians and engineers having joined forces to form an economic entity that affects the security of the Northern Archipelago."

"We should nibble away at them step by step," suggested a strategy analyst. "Half of Anjiu City’s economy relies on the channels to Shangjing, including land, sea, and air transport, utterly dependent on Shangjing’s breath for their existence. With overseas freight highly unstable and wars raging, we, as the masters of Shangjing, can easily bring their economic activities to a halt and destabilize the markets by imposing just a few restrictions."

"Accordingly, Nestor Corporation will use this as an excuse to really launch a corporate war against us to break the blockade," another strategy analyst pointed out. "Considering the analysis from Hundred-eyes Demon, our chances of winning are only 1.7%."

"1.7%!"

This alarming figure astonished most people present. The great New Xisheng Group should crush Nestor Corporation with its overwhelming power; yet, they now face a mere 1.7% chance of victory—how absurd.

"There must be some mistake."

"The Hundred-eyes Demon isn’t all that advanced in terms of artificial intelligence, is it?"

"We have space motherships; what do they have?" People whispered among themselves.

"Haah..." The Scavenger found it amusing to see The Big Shots so surprised.

"Operate on him and upload his memory to the file system," Yuan Zhenzhen commanded, having exhausted the value of this Scavenger, and signaled the Quantum Warrior to drag him away.

"Surgery? Upload to the file system?" The Scavenger was dragged out of the meeting room, oblivious to his own fate.

1.7%. Yuan Zhenzhen felt uneasy about this number, as well. How could it be? The existence of Nestor Corporation was truly making her nervous—if New Xisheng Group were defeated in the corporate war, and Nestor Corporation monopolized the Northern Archipelago and became the new gigantic enterprise, the situation would be completely overturned.

Without the support of Xisheng Real Estate, Xisheng Industrial, Xisheng Security, and other companies in the Northern Archipelago, Kurokawa Kana and the others in Taixi Continent would inevitably fall into decline in the vast war against Honma Noriko. The foundation of Xisheng Group was still in the Northern Archipelago—should they be uprooted here, their overseas assets would be as fragile as rootless duckweed.

The Seven Seals! Yuan Zhenzhen couldn’t help but think of this mystical and supreme organization. It still respected Honma Noriko and those Xisheng elites she took with her, refusing to acknowledge New Xisheng Group and thus cutting them off from access to high-level supernatural forces, preventing them from recruiting and hiring those most terrifying Reality Manipulators.

"We will conduct an investigation," Yuan Zhenzhen took a deep breath. "We will clarify the facts with a definitive investigation."

After the meeting concluded, she, worried, immediately contacted a highly competent team of Mercenaries, directing them to scout the conditions of the so-called magnificent woodland.

Alliance Special Agent "Ghost Warrior" waited for Yuan Zhenzhen at the end of the corridor.

"We need your intervention," Yuan Zhenzhen requested. "We need the Battle Witches from the ’Skydrive Agreement’ to send their most powerful."

"First," said the Ghost Warrior, "the Skydrive Agreement is the last resort to protect the status of the Corporate Alliance. I’m just a humble investigator and do not have the privilege to have the management consider deploying the Skydrive Agreement."

"New Xisheng Group will become the most loyal sponsor of the Corporate Alliance in the future," Yuan Zhenzhen insisted sincerely. "Help us out."

"""

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"I deeply apologize, I cannot take action personally, after all, I am but of human flesh and blood," the Ghost Warrior bowed to Yuan Zhenzhen, "What I possess is solely human intelligence, and human intelligence reminds me that deploying a solar activity-level gigantic electromagnetic storm on Anjiu City remains an important option for you. Moreover, if you indeed value your hegemony to an unsurpassed extent, a triadic nuclear strike could ensure the city is leveled to the ground."

"Then we would have to bury six million people along with Nestor Corporation," muttered Yuan Zhenzhen.

After the fall of Nestor Corporation, there wouldn’t be a second enterprise like them for decades to come. The Ghost Warrior thought to himself. He looked out the window at the bustling and vast yet refined Shangjing, which made him think of many splendid things. Without a doubt, the city itself was a work of art by humans, and artworks tend to be fragile.

Corporate Wars. The Ghost Warrior closed his eyes. How utterly bloody.

Meanwhile, Xu Yang, Farosa, and Lila were holding a strategic planning meeting.

"The situation is crystal clear," Xu Yang outlined with a clear train of thought, scribbling on the whiteboard, "We must first take control of the entire Northern Archipelago, then project our influence onto the other continents."

He marked the names and locations of all the giant corporations:

[Eastern Hemisphere]

Northern Archipelago: None

Silla: Modern Entertainment (music and idol industry)

Taiya Archipelago: Black Fire Innovation (armaments)

Near East Region: Near East Providence (energy and spices)

Peaceland: Great Ocean Engineering (mining, construction, and raw material processing)

Xia: Kyushu High Pavilion (vehicle and all-category industry), Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing (precision manufacturing)

Great Northern Region: Northern Military Industry (super-large military industrial complex)

[Western Hemisphere]

New Taixi State: Lighthouse Core (high-tech and mystical technologies)

Taixi Continent: Divine Daylight (cultural, fashion, luxury goods), Rose Medicine (healthcare), Thousand Lakes Electronics (electronic product manufacturing), Iris Group (comprehensive equipment supply), Suvy Metals (advanced manufacturing), Switz Bank (finance and banking)

Agave Continent: Rainforest Wanwu (biotechnology), Taco Big Hat (food processing), Scarlet Modification (prosthetic modification)

White Elephant Continent: None

Hot Tree Continent: Songhai Cyber (basic communication supply)

"As you can see," Xu Yang summarized, "Taixi Continent and New Taixi State are home to the most powerful giant corporations, and the situations are also the most complex."

"There’s at least one Ancient Mystic, Dilnai, in New Taixi State," Farosa mused, "Taixi Continent has even more. Indeed, we can’t touch the affairs of these two places lightly; we’re free to engage with the other regions."

As Taixi Continent is the homeland of Farosa’s origin, it has always been shrouded in various mystical legends, and even she herself knew little about those beings that lurked deep in history. The fraudster Mack was pushed out and couldn’t get by in Taixi Continent, which is why he came to the Northern Archipelago seeking opportunities.

"Ancient Mystics must have a hierarchy," Lila pointed out, "and they have close ties with ancient civilizations."

Farosa’s fingers tapped lightly on the table, a strange and thrilling idea brought a smile to her face.

"Yes," she said, "the civilization of the Ancients. I think the Ancients must have known how to control and slaughter these Ancient Mystics; they have all spent time living alongside the Ancients. We could learn techniques from their ancient civilization."

"So we should control Xisheng Shrine," Xu Yang thought of what Mond had told him, Xisheng Shrine was one of the Giant Towers, and there had to be Ancients inside, as all Giant Towers required the Ancients to operate.

"If we’re to take control of Shangjing and subsequently the entire Northern Archipelago, now is the only and probably the last chance," Lila said firmly, "an Eastern Hemisphere great war is erupting outside, and no power will have the opportunity to interfere."

"We’re still missing a reason," Farosa closed her eyes, pondering and concocting various scenarios, "Ah, I think they will present us with that reason soon enough."

Late at night.

A group of mercenaries advanced through majestic woodland, taking a roundabout route on small boats from the outer waters, landing on the backside of the forest. On the beach, there were a few scattered tin huts, not yet demolished but long abandoned. The people had moved into brand-new prefabricated houses, living in a healthier environment.

Approaching the forest, the mercenaries began recording and live-transmitting the landscape, releasing a drone to scan the forest.

"It will surely move and defend itself," the mercenary leaders warned each other, "what we have to do is..."

Bang!

Their drone was still in flight when it was struck down by a bolt of thunder, and they were quite surprised. Do plants now cast thunder?

How strange. They looked at one another, puzzled.

In the final image transmitted by the drone before it fell, they discerned a huge dark shadow lurking in the woods, hunched and massive, with a tail long and lethal, like a bladed weapon.

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