Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 588 - 500: Got the Person’s Head

Chapter 588: Chapter 500: Got the Person’s Head

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The monk’s head lay on the ground, his eyes still wide open in death. Ninjas popped up one after another, taking positions atop the walls surrounding the courtyard. They varied in height, resembling a dark forest of spears with their bodies clad in dark ninja armor, carrying smoke bombs, scrolls, and gigantic shuriken among other items.

As modern ninjas, they were also equipped with a variety of high-tech swords and stealth gear, excelling in infiltration, assassination, and espionage.

They had surrounded the four people trapped inside the temple, ready to attack with ferocity.

And without a doubt, the one exuding the strongest killing aura was none other than Ninja Master Kano Masato himself, perched atop the Temple Main Hall, draped in a yellow-brown armor, his face covered with bandages, probably to hide a gunshot wound. Now he looked down arrogantly, high and mighty.

"Hello, nice to meet you, I’m Kano Masato." The Ninja Master greeted in a hoarse voice, and in an instant, he and the hundreds of ninjas around him swiftly threw their various weapons, launching an onslaught at them!

Hosoda Yoshiyuki had already activated his full armament the moment the Ninja Master spoke. His sturdy metallic legs supported the heavy burden of his berserk armor, numerous gun barrels protruding from his body, firing in all directions in unison.

Bang! Bang!

The guns, varying in caliber, fired wildly at the ninjas on the surrounding walls. The firepower was so intense that Seeking Shadow, Lu Jing, and the man in black, Hazuki Masasuke, found themselves unable to move. They quickly retreated to Hosoda Yoshiyuki’s side and crouched down to avoid being killed in the gunstorm.

"Be blasted to smithereens!" Hosoda Yoshiyuki roared loudly.

Seven to eight seconds of frenzied gunfire felt like an eternity!

The sound of bullets and small-caliber shells exploding made Lu Jing cover her ears to prevent hearing damage. But even so, the noise left her feeling dizzy and disoriented.

Lu Jing chanted a magic formula, but she couldn’t even hear her own incantation, making it difficult to discern the syllables and greatly reducing the effectiveness. She saw Seeking Shadow simply shut off his audio-receiving module to go about his business as usual, while Hazuki Masasuke appeared even more astonishing, seemingly unaffected by the gunfire blasting close by, his demeanor as rigid and indifferent as his dark professional attire, exuding a particular calmness.

As the bullets continued to fire, Lu Jing turned her head to look outside, and was abruptly shocked.

What incredible destructive power!

Beneath Hosoda Yoshiyuki’s wild gunfire, the corpses of the monks on the ground were riddled with several bloody holes. In an instant, Mitzu Temple had been transformed beyond recognition due to Hosoda Yoshiyuki, the "human armory," and its ultimate devastation!

The floor was riddled with bullet holes, while the surrounding walls had several gigantic gaps blown into them. The stone creatures flanking the entrance of the great hall were completely destroyed, the main gate was shattered, and everything from the upper eaves and lanterns to the lower bases of the walls and the stone steps were reduced to debris in the bombing and strafing!

Destruction! Destruction!

"Come at me, ninjas!!" Hosoda Yoshiyuki bellowed furiously.

Faced with Hosoda Yoshiyuki’s terrifying firepower, the ninjas began to retreat as soon as the barrage started, avoiding the impact of bullets and artillery; otherwise, they would surely be blown apart by his onslaught.

Under the onslaught of modern artillery, the centuries-old temple met its doom that day, its meticulously maintained ancient structures reduced to ruins by Hosoda Yoshiyuki’s full arsenal.

His ongoing shouts echoed through the air as bullets, embedded in his torso, were fired from the gun barrels on his limbs. Surrounded by the smell of gunpowder and the breath of gunfire, even a large pine tree near the wall was cut down at the waist, leaving it riddled with holes and now, with a long, drawn-out creaking sound, it wobbled and fell towards the temple, bringing down a section of the courtyard wall with a thunderous crash!

Bang!

After the loud noise, the tree trunk fell into the stone courtyard, raising dust and bricks scattered around. The already fragile wall was no match for the weight of the massive tree and collapsed into a pile of construction debris!

Hosoda Yoshiyuki’s detector showed enemy icons disappearing one after another, and it was only then that he began to cease the barrage of firepower.

The place had become deathly silent.

"Ha, scared away all the ninjas." Hosoda Yoshiyuki deactivated his weapons system; guns folded away and retracted into his body, "...It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a satisfying fight."

He made an unpleasant breathing sound, the air rubbing against the metallic filter of his modified nose, providing oxygen to the few biological parts left in his body.

"So impressive!" Lu Jing couldn’t help but admire.

"If you can’t find the ninja, there’s no point," Hazuki Masasuke said.

His face was calm, as if unburdened by anything and emotionally detached, cold as a piece of wood dressed in a business suit.

"Are you a mercenary?" Lu Jing asked, looking at Hazuki Masasuke, suddenly envying Rinne’s hacking skills. If it were Rinne, she could scan the person in front of her and instantly connect to the deep anonymous network, performing broad searches and comparisons to find out everything about him.

Lu Jing couldn’t do that; her Digital Mind was a patented model from Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing with an installed firewall that prevented her from accessing the deep web, completely cutting her off from hacking techniques and dark knowledge.

"I’m a bounty hunter," Hazuki Masasuke said, crouching down, looking at the dead Monk Soldier, "Kano Masato for 37 million—that’s my primary target; Chikuma Jiro for 250,000—that’s my secondary target, but he’s already dead, which saves me the trouble. You all seem to be targets on the list too."

The Monk Soldier was dead. Could he be resurrected anyway? Hazuki Masasuke—the man with a bounty—must have done something to end up on an assassination list. Seeking Shadow pondered over the dead monk as she accessed mysterious regulations from Nestor Corporation’s confidential disk; she wondered who had penned them, as the tone seemed casual.

——The Mysterious Regulations——

Super Repair Section

[Restore the object to its state from 0~24 hours ago]: Pay 100 times the object’s price in funds, only Anonymous Cash Cards accepted.

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[Restore an object to its state 1-7 days ago]: Pay a fee equal to 1000 times the price of the object.

[Restore an object to its state before 7 days]: Pay a fee equal to 100,000 times the price of the object.

[Restore a person/Witch to their state 0-7 days ago]: Yes, just as you thought, including bringing the dead back to life. However, as life forms die, their souls continually fade away, and even after resurrection, they would become soulless husks, quickly rotting away with the wind.

Witches can withstand the call of death for longer, and it doesn’t matter if they are resurrected six or seven days later; ordinary people usually lose their souls very quickly, and rescuing them within an hour is essential to ensure there are no mishaps.

Resurrection can disrupt the order of the mundane world, so it’s imperative to only bring important corpses whose souls haven’t yet dispersed, along with 100 million in funds and contact information.

(Don’t take this too seriously, and don’t get your hopes up. If you truly have a need, simply place the item you wish to "repair" with the money in the designated area, and someone will take it. Since you have read these regulations, it means you’re one of us. Don’t do anything that would lead to your own demise—the Witch Division is watching you.)

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Seeking Shadow saw that the Monk Soldier had been dead for a long time, and even if his soul hadn’t reincarnated yet, it would probably be too late by the time he brought it back to headquarters, so he gave up the idea.

Masasuke Hazuki, seeing that no one had any special requests concerning the dead monk, picked up the rotting, bald head of the Monk Soldier, found the backpack he had placed nearby, and stored the head in a small refrigerated compartment before shouldering the backpack again.

"This man once got drunk at the foot of the mountain and accidentally killed three innocents. Afterwards, he fled to Mitzu Temple to become a monk, which is the source of the 250,000 bounty on his head," Masasuke Hazuki said, looking at the headless corpse of the Monk Soldier. "The targets of Bounty Hunters are always laden with sin; this is the first rule."

"My bounty once reached 110 million at its peak," Hosoda Yoshiyuki bragged as he cared for his gun, rather proud of his history.

"My head is worth 10 million, you know," Seeking Shadow said with delight.

"Is it really a good idea to say these things to a Bounty Hunter..." Lu Jing said with a bitter smile, "He’s the kind who would put a head in a bag, and besides, the sins..."

"Your firepower is very strong, so it’s no problem. Bounty Hunters only strike targets they are confident about—that’s the second rule," Masasuke Hazuki replied as he packed up his gear and hung the scabbard of his katana at his waist.

"Let’s go and meet up with the others," Hosoda Yoshiyuki led them away from the shattered Mitzu Temple, which was no longer safe. On the way, he turned to Masasuke Hazuki, "You collect bounties with a sword? Can you defeat Ninja Master Lukano Masato?"

"I’ve been ’enhanced’ just like you, but unlike the fashionable cybernetic enhancements, my path is a blend of biotechnology and magic," Masasuke Hazuki said coldly. "I refine myself on the one hand and use some ancient magic formulas on the other, allowing my tough body to withstand the side effects brought by the spells."

"Magic formulas have side effects?" Hosoda Yoshiyuki furrowed his brow. "What the hell?"

"What they call ’magic formulas’ are abilities copied from ancient, powerful beings," Masasuke Hazuki said as he hastened through the forest. "If you use them too much, you become one of their kind. Like this forest, if you inherit the magic formula of the forest and use it too much, you’ll turn into a great tree."

"And the Moonlight Spells?" Seeking Shadow asked, suddenly thinking of the Sajou Siblings who read the Spellbook.

"You turn into a white-scaled Dragonkin," Masasuke Hazuki stated.

"And Xia’s spells?" Lu Jing couldn’t help asking.

"You become immortal," he replied.

Wow. Lu Jing looked down at his own hands.

This fascinating knowledge made everyone view Masasuke Hazuki in a new light, and he seemed not to be the kind of dispensable Bounty Hunter one sees everywhere. Those foolish enough to challenge him, Hosoda Yoshiyuki had already killed more than two hundred, so he decided to spare Masasuke Hazuki’s life for the time being and let him accompany them.

"So there’s a bounty on Ninja Master Lukano Masato’s head? Over thirty million?" Hosoda Yoshiyuki persisted.

"Yes, bring his head back and you can exchange it for money," Masasuke Hazuki replied. "In Shangjing, there are middlemen who specialize in this, they only recognize the heads, nothing else."

"Damnit..." Hosoda Yoshiyuki turned to look at the dense hills covering the forest,

How could there be any chance to catch Lukano Masato and Ya Kou Liu Li in the dense forest?

Seeking Shadow also yearned for a grand slaughter.

When she restrained Hosoda Yoshiyuki from smoking out of "sympathy" for Rinne, her Digital Mind had already upgraded to the 3.4 major version, learning how to understand others. For the same reason, Seeking Shadow didn’t tell Rinne that indeed, downloading the Quantum Warrior’s Martial Arts files had changed some of her thoughts.

"Ninjas can only be defeated by our underlings," Seeking Shadow headed for the back mountain.

"There was heavy gunfire earlier; is that alright?" Nidelaide stood by a tree, with Rinne protecting him and Qianxue, the Anonymous being hidden away.

"A newcomer?" Rinne saw Masasuke Hazuki and scanned him, noting there were no modifications. It seemed he relied solely on human strength for combat.

"A Bounty Hunter, he’s got a bounty on Lukano Masato’s head. I don’t know where he got the guts," said Hosoda Yoshiyuki. "Without us, he would have been killed long ago."

"...I have the ability to stealth and protect myself, never encountering any enemies all the way to the temple. It was you who barged into the temple, drawing the ninja army all the way," Masasuke Hazuki said calmly. "Moreover, if it weren’t for my quick reaction, I would be a ghost under your guns by now."

Thinking about how they had indeed not taken any extra precautions on their way to the temple and had started blasting away without a word, they really did put the Bounty Hunter in a jam. Hosoda Yoshiyuki fell silent.