Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 553 - 475: Exchange of Consciousness

Chapter 553: Chapter 475: Exchange of Consciousness

Seeking Shadow brought Rinne to the technical workshop on the third floor, and had her lie down on a "Helinox" model hacker chair.

"The apartment is small, but the equipment is top-notch," Seeking Shadow said, "The internet connection is the fastest too, you won’t regret coming here."

"Seeking Shadow, the deep anonymous network says you’re the shadow of the Cyber Specter," Rinne lay on the chair surface and asked, "What exactly does that mean?"

"It means I can summon its immense power," Seeking Shadow brought a helmet over to Rinne, "You put it on yourself. Before your hacking equipment arrives, you can use this for work."

She was about to meet the Cyber Specter herself.

What an "honor."

Would it impart to her the techniques for breaching major corporations?

Rinne watched Seeking Shadow operate on the terminal. She closed her eyes and connected the four cables to the interfaces deep within her silver hair.

—The mortal world became distant.

The sensation was extremely strange, like one second she was in the blazing summer heat, and the next she was plunged into icy cold seawater.

The boundless "waves" of the Helis Sea instantly shielded all organs, the sense of smell and sight were stripped away in an instant, leaving only emptiness and darkness, accompanied by faint fear.

Rinne had seen greater terrors, and was no longer afraid. Her consciousness gradually linked into the software.

She was at the node just before complete consciousness upload, what professionals refer to as the "Dreamless" state.

The "Dreamless" state is like being deep in sleep, but colorful dreams have yet to emerge, the mind just falls into eternal stillness, dark and void, leaving only echoes of the past and heavy shadows of bygone moments.

There was nothing. Rinne judged.

Illogical... Rinne pondered. She should have already connected.

Unless Seeking Shadow deceived her.

It was only after a while when a streak of arc light moved in the darkness that Rinne suddenly realized the Cyber Specter had always been before her, she had observed it all along.

It was just too massive!

The Cyber Specter, boundless, she could only observe a small black fragment of it.

Like a mythical primordial lifeform.

Rinne groped through the data space, gradually capturing the image of the colossus.

The Cyber Specter was like the infinite outline of the deep sea, her fragile consciousness seemed minuscule in front of its massive data volume, and she could be swallowed in an instant.

Rinne felt a strange sensation in the blur.

Her life was now under the gaze of a more powerful being.

"I see you. I want to know, what is the ultimate form of technology?" Rinne asked her question.

The scale of the world stretched, extending from an ocean to deep space.

In the concept of a digital life, as close as it may seem, even the smallest storage unit can contain a person’s entire consciousness. Similarly, an individual’s will is just as insignificant within the vast data structure.

Rinne silently felt her insignificance.

The behemoth gently glided above her head, and she was half-awakened in the infinite scale.

It answered in this manner. Rinne knew the Cyber Specter must have seen the end of technology and understood the truth to respond like this.

"I want to dive into the depths," Rinne knew she was not deep enough; she was still outside the data barrier, using primitive ways of receiving information to understand all this, "I want to know... I want to know how to enter the Helis Sea."

A narrow bridge appeared within the system.

Rinne tried to squeeze through, toward the access port at the other end of the bridge, but it was too difficult, the transformation was not enough.

In this condition, she couldn’t grasp her own spirit.

Equipment. She needed her full set of hacking equipment. A simple hacker chair couldn’t support her to accomplish a true consciousness upload. Without a Digital Mind, she relied on corporate equipment for support, which still fell short compared to engineers who truly possessed Digital Minds.

Rinne could only give up.

"... You alone killed nearly four hundred hackers," Rinne looked at the phantom of the Cyber Specter, "You’re the demon that devours hackers, is that it?"

A long silence.

Rinne concentrated her mind, thinking the Cyber Specter had left, but in an instant she saw the remnants of hundreds of cleaned and archived consciousnesses.

It was the "Hacker Graveyard"!

Rinne’s consciousness nearly trembled before this spectacle.

Death, a grand death.

On that ever-unfailing defense line, even the strongest technical elites were annihilated in the Helis Sea, doomed without hope, leaving behind only hundreds of hollow archives made up of fragmented consciousness files.

How magnificent — How enviable.

Could one do such things once reaching the pinnacle of technology?

Rinne longed to enter the Helis Sea, to reach the peak of technology, to become an eternal Digital Life, omnipotent, demolishing corporations.

Gathering her thoughts, Rinne continued to attempt communication.

"A company owes a blood debt, I want to go back for revenge, I want them to pay with their lives," Rinne said calmly.

"I’ve always been chasing, I’ve always wanted to catch up with the big corporations, for which I kept trying," she said.

"But then, they installed the Helis Sea, and suddenly all my efforts became meaningless," she continued.

"All my technical skills became outdated, and I could no longer reach the depths," she said.

"So, I want to learn from you how to dive down, no matter the cost," she added.

After a pause, Rinne approached the data bridge again.

"I know," Rinne said, "You were captured, fallen, destroyed by a cyber virus, turned into Nestor Corporation’s puppet beast. Perhaps this is the price of being a user of technology... But I fully understand. I also swear to you, once I master the Helis Sea, I will try to free you from the data trap! So please, Cyber Specter — teach me how to enter the Helis Sea!"