Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 571 - 487: The Truth

Chapter 571: Chapter 487: The Truth

Rinne wished to enhance her hacking skills and find a place where she belonged, but she was not yet strong enough, far from it.

In the days that followed, Rinne became more proficient with the technology of the Helis Sea, progressing steadily; she had now completed 30% of her learning course.

There was something that puzzled Rinne.

In the office, she left behind lots of takeout boxes, cola cans, smelly socks, and dirty clothes every day, but every time she woke up, all the garbage had been cleaned up, all the clothes had been washed, and the entire office was sparkling clean.

She had originally thought Xu Yang and the Cleaning Robot had done all the work, until later she discovered the frightening truth behind it.

Rinne had set an awakening program in her brain implant.

At 3:00 AM, the program would stimulate her central nervous system to awaken her; she had to know who was cleaning the office.

So, when Rinne opened her eyes in the wee hours and got up, she saw Lila Nestor wiping down desks at the Shijin Mansion.

She was stunned.

Completely, from head to toe, Rinne was frozen, unable to move an inch.

This event had as much impact on Rinne as the desolate wilderness she saw the first time she escaped from the containment facility.

She shook off the blanket from the sofa, unable to believe what she was seeing.

The most powerful woman in the Northern Archipelago was actually wiping down desks in the office...

Who would believe it if she told them!

The surging Nestor Corporation, now the most awe-inspiring corporate leader and the most ambitious reformer, Lila Nestor, was actually tidying the room!

The president of Nestor Corporation, an organization with 550,000 employees, was now wiping tables in front of her...

Then she saw her wiping the glass, sweeping the floor, and taking out the trash.

Rinne quickly withdrew, closed her eyes, pretending she had never seen any of this, treating it all as a dream. She regretted her intense curiosity; it shouldn’t have been like this.

Rinne felt the other side of the sofa sink down as Lila sat beside her.

"Surprised?" Lila said coldly.

Rinne opened her eyes and saw Lila sitting upright, just as she did when receiving media interviews, always stern and meticulous.

Her eyes were the deep blue of gemstones, her pale golden hair was soft, and her synthetic skin was flawlessly white. When Rinne subconsciously scanned Lila, she was immediately blocked by the highest-grade firewall. Hidden lethality lurked within the network security module; if Rinne attempted to detect any ports, she would face retaliation and be burned, forcing her to abort the scan immediately.

Lila used an artificial body. Rinne confirmed this fact, which she had previously guessed from fragmented images, but now she saw it clearly.

A very expensive, high-end custom version had been made specifically for Lila, a seamless body indistinguishable from her appearance "in life."

Who had the luxury to make a Witch, a discarded experimental product, come back to life from the trash heap?

Seeing Rinne silent, Lila took a pack of Locke Brand Cigarettes from her white coat pocket.

"Smoke?" Lila extended the pack of cigarettes toward Rinne.

"Haven’t smoked in a long time." Rinne relaxed a bit when she saw the slender cigarettes. She took one out, ignited it with the lighter on her fingertip, and helped Lila light hers too.

Comfortable, relaxed, and revitalizing.

The smoke entered Rinne’s modified lungs, where the deadly carcinogens encountered nothing but carbon fiber and filter cotton.

Lila was a machine, her smoking was just a repetition of past memories.

A shared hobby brought them closer, and in less than a few minutes, their postures on the sofa became lax. Rinne had previously felt that Lila possessed a forbidding chill, but now she no longer felt her to be so dangerous.

"Do you dream?" Lila glanced at Rinne.

"Never dream." Rinne explained, "After undergoing specific modifications, dreams became like a videodisc player, projecting the Chapters I set before falling asleep."

"Movies?"

"The images I recorded with my eyes, including people I killed and those who died beside me, as well as the companions who were important to me but are now dead."

Rinne often reminisced about that innocent good kid, Lu Jing, wishing things could have stayed that way.

"Nostalgia can give you peace of mind," Lila exhaled a puff of smoke, her magic power capturing the myriad particles floating in the air, "Having no dreams is good, it means you won’t be disturbed by someone’s psyche. Good, you won’t be swayed by her."

"So... why is the president of Nestor Corporation here cleaning?" Rinne ventured to ask.

"Waiting for my magic power to naturally recover and to pass the time."

"Oh, I thought... the president might be living the O life together with Mr. Web Monitor." Rinne breathed a sigh of relief.

Lila turned her head away, silent.

Rinne immediately stood up.

"Wait!" Rinne exclaimed in surprise and in a lowered voice, "Was it when I fell asleep before? You and he..."

"He has a knack for intimacy, a talent, and good taste," Lila said, not wanting to expose her love for the master, she chose to mention the most trivial aspect.

"You can tell," Rinne said meaningfully, her eyes cunning and her posture alluring, "you really need him."

"I knew him a long time ago," Lila continued to smoke, then fell silent, "you wouldn’t understand."

"So let’s change the subject. What is Nestor Corporation up to now?" Rinne slowly sat down.

"Looking for clues on the ’Evil Beast’ we captured, to see if Enomoto Bank is involved." Lila transferred 60,000 funds to Rinne, "This is your bonus for successfully protecting the premiere last time. The money is yours."

Bonus? More like hush money! Rinne pocketed the card, the smoke in the room making her head spin.

She stepped out onto the balcony to catch a breeze and continued to smoke; Locke Brand Cigarettes were a good brand, strong and sometimes made her forget some things.

"Everyone is addicted to different things," Lila approached Rinne, "tobacco, stamps, killing, entertainment..."

"But I know when to stop," Rinne completely destroyed her cigarette with a fingertip lighter.

She opened her palms to the wild wind outside, and the white ashes were taken by the breeze.

"You used to live in the dark side," Lila held the cigarette between her fingers.

"Now it’s more like living in a grey area," Rinne commented, "not exactly honorable, but not dark enough to be revolting."

"Underneath this city lies another city, Aizu City," Lila looked down.

"I know such places exist, but it’s hard to imagine," Rinne looked down through the dozens of meters high buildings to the clean tiled ground, beneath which should be a complicated piping system; it’s impossible for there to be another city.

Rinne chatted aimlessly with Lila until sunrise.

She keenly sensed that Lila was initially hostile towards her, but gradually, that hostility faded, replaced by a mild sense of melancholy.

There were some things Lila could only discuss with Rinne. A witch who knew nothing, someone who could only listen and not judge – could there be a better conversation partner?

They didn’t talk about any complex issues, but rather avoided discussing war, economic crisis, and the business industry operations; these topics were shut out, leaving only light subjects: online shopping, stage plays, weekend plans, and the total number of cities they had visited in their lives.

Half an hour after Lila left, Rinne came back to her senses, grateful that she had met someone as interesting as the witch Lila Nestor in this life.

She appeared to be like a machine, but her mind entirely copied the original spirit, which Rinne thought was a simplified version of the "Ascension" surgery.

The current consciousness upload technology prevalent among the wealthy originally stemmed from experiments on a large number of witches, and Lila’s experience was just one such experiment within those plans.

In addition, Lila’s existence also explained why Rinne woke up to breakfast.

"This bread wasn’t made by you," Rinne pointed at the food on the tray that Xu Yang, who had just woken up, intended to take away.

"What’s wrong?" Xu Yang recalled how thoughtful Lila was last night, "Can’t I eat it?"

"Forget it, I want to see the face under your mask," Rinne observed him.

"You’ll see it after you finish your task."

"What?" Rinne had never thought Xu Yang would say such a thing, "I’ll see it after I finish the task? What task?"

"What do you think of the Agave Continent?"

"Deserts, rainforests, soccer, indigenous peoples, throw in some bananas and coffee," Rinne laughed lightly, unconcerned with that distant foreign land.

"The task is to protect a person from the Agave Continent coming ashore and secretly transport him here," Xu Yang explained, "This needs to be done discreetly and cleanly because he’s quite special."

"Who?"

"The Colonel. A man known only as the Colonel, who has renounced his name to avoid a curse, and everyone calls him that. A contact codenamed ’Artist’ passed us the Colonel’s message."

"I’ve vaguely heard of him, this Colonel was a leader in the Agave Continent a long time ago," Rinne recalled.

"The Colonel’s wife was a Witch, just like Nestor Corporation, she looked after the status of witches. But his wife was also killed, leaving him worthless. Yet he still has influence, and we could do him a favor," Xu Yang said.

"There’s also Gran Chaco, cleaned out by A40," Rinne remembered the story, "A40 was originally a top hitman but ended up managing Gran Chaco quite well."

"Of course," Xu Yang didn’t divulge the whole truth and just continued along with the conversation, "The Colonel is a very capable man. If you help him, I will continue to help you."

"Understood," Rinne nodded, and handed Xu Yang a cash card, "Here you go."

"What’s this?"

"There’s 60,000 inside," Rinne said, "That’s my tuition fee."

"Why so serious?" Xu Yang took the card.

Rinne climbed up on the table, her eyes locked on Xu Yang, grinning and extending her hand to him.

"First, you’ve helped me a lot," she said, "Second, one day I’m going to be stronger than you. Third, don’t forget, once I wrap up this job, you’re going to show me your face."

"...I’ll be satisfied as long as you can help," Xu Yang shook her hand, her grip firm.

"It’s a deal," Rinne nodded lightly, then ran off to turn on Seeking Shadow hidden beneath a cabinet.

"I have understood everything, I learn from other Synthetic Humans," Seeking Shadow emerged, thoughtful. During its standby time, it had defragmented its disk and upgraded its mental version from 3.36 to 3.39, just a step away from a major update, "I want to know, where is the enemy?"