Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 592 - 504: Going to the Moon

Chapter 592: Chapter 504: Going to the Moon

"You don’t have to placate me, really," Rinne sat upright on the couch, her voice sounding crisp and pleasing, refreshing yet piercing, just like her name. However, accompanying this pleasant sound was an undertone of suppressed annoyance and disdain.

"Really." Xu Yang checked the base’s status and found it feasible, "I’ll depart tonight, I’ve got business on the Moon myself."

Rinne lay back on the couch, facing inward. The smell of a fragrant cleaning agent wafted from underneath the cushions.

She could imagine how Lila took meticulous care of these pieces of furniture, everything arranged neatly and spotless. Then, was Lila an overworked mechanical maid or a widely respected president of a major corporation? Rinne always found herself confused whenever she thought about it.

"Lunatic," Rinne muttered gruffly, "Keep away from me."

"Didn’t you say yourself that you wanted to go to the Moon?" Xu Yang strolled around the room.

"I hate jokes," Rinne said icily, her tone devoid of any sympathy or ambiguity. She was getting angry.

Xu Yang took a stack of delicate chip boxes and hard disks from the black metal file cabinet, filled with data documents, mostly on basic industrial production and veterinary medicine, which could help the Moon Dragon Race manufacture suitable industrial goods and medications.

"Moonfire" Mond was not so concerned about his offspring; most of the time, he let the young and juvenile dragons fend for themselves. Since establishing contact with Nestor Corporation, the ambitious leader of the dragon clan, "Xueyan" Pelagia, longed to improve the Moon Dragon Race’s quality of life using human technology and medicine and was willing to exchange vast amounts of minerals for it.

The technological advancements of the Moon Dragons couldn’t happen overnight. The tech tree pointed out by humans had to be digested by the Dragon Clan from scratch. The technology of the steam age, which was quite simple for humans, had to be adapted into dragon knowledge. Their colossal size meant factories and machinery had to be several times larger than those of humans, and the corresponding assembly lines and technical processes were also vastly different.

Besides taking the data to the Moon to trade, Xu Yang had another favor to do for Wei Shiyue.

The relationship between Wei Shiyue and Du Qianqian waxed and waned. Wei Shiyue was tough and straightforward, while Du Qianqian was sensitive and cunning, naturally leading to many friction points. They had both complained to Xu Yang about how difficult the other was, how bad their temper could be. Besides, Wei Shiyue had left behind some personal items on the Moon, hoping Xu Yang would bring them back to the Ground – she despised her father and had no desire to return to the Moonlight Palace, leaving Xu Yang to act as the intermediary.

"I’m leaving," Xu Yang prepared his gear, put on a white windbreaker with many pockets, tucked on a ceramic mask, and walked outside, "Do you want to go to the Moon, or stay inside the house?"

"..." Rinne closed her eyes, pretending not to hear, until Xu Yang closed the door and started up the Anonymous. She then opened her eyes to see the black, slender Shuttle Machine slowly exiting the hangar. She couldn’t bear it any longer, jumped out of bed, and dashed out, "Wait for me!"

Xu Yang did not slow down, but merely opened the hatch. Rinne activated her Magic Power, leapt onto the side of the shuttle, then walked inside and slammed the door shut.

Just then, the Shuttle Machine had just lifted off, swiftly flying into the vast night sky. Rinne saw the glittering, glorious city below them emanating vibes of opulence, with bright billboards and holographic illusions everywhere. Her heart that had been in suspense slowly settled down.

"I don’t want to watch a movie, I don’t want to go to the observatory," Rinne looked at Xu Yang and said coldly, "I don’t want to go to a hotel or forest, least of all the suburbs."

"Why would we go there," Xu Yang said casually, "We’re going to the Moon, not some other place."

"...!" Rinne snapped back to reality, "Nestor Corporation’s rocket launch plan, I’m the lead test pilot. But you haven’t informed the media; what’s the point of launching a rocket like that? Moreover, I haven’t undergone any space travel training."

"No need to train," Xu Yang explained, "I’ve been there, they’ve established an ecosystem."

"They?" Rinne’s eyes flickered.

She thought of many wondrous images, including the perilous depictions of the Moon in various movies and comics, rumors of it being rife with dangerous creatures to the point that human Moon landings often failed, with brave astronauts vanishing again and again.

"The colonists on the Moon," Xu Yang nodded, observing Rinne, aware that she harbored many worries, "...Let’s take this slowly, come sit next to me."

Rinne sat beside Xu Yang, who handed her a can of black coffee. As she drank down the cold, bitter liquid, her eyes began to twinkle with specks of starlight.

"Why go to the Moon?" Xu Yang gently prodded, not wishing to burden Rinne any further. She had it hard enough, bearing unspeakable mental stress, and Xu Yang was well aware of it.

Rinne was silent for a while, then responded:

"To find a reason to live," Rinne said.

"A reason to live..." Xu Yang hadn’t expected such an answer from Rinne.

..." Rinne lowered her head and set aside the coffee can with a dull thud, burying her face in her hands, "...Going to the Moon is an impossible feat. So I set this goal for myself, to live day by day, pretending that I’m still striving for it."

Rinne looked out toward the night sky, having left the city behind, heading for the desolate wilderness.

To the Moon.

Such a ludicrous, grandiose goal, yet the only one that could sustain her through each day.

"It’s quite powerless, isn’t it?" Rinne continued, speaking softly, as if it were something unrelated to her. She leaned against the window, her gaze cast onto the dark countryside outside, "So, once I’m on the Moon, my dream will be over, and I can peacefully die. After all, what is the meaning of living anyway?"

It wasn’t just that life felt dull; Rinne also sensed its utter meaninglessness.

Meaningless...

"No goals for spending money," Xu Yang slowly said, "no pursuit of luxury goods, no emotional depth to invest in, no relatives, no sense of belonging, no security, no friends to confide in, no personal career, nothing..."

"Yeah, so what?" Rinne muttered, Xu Yang’s words confirming her current state of aimlessness and possession of nothing, wandering the world as a hacker witch.

Her once-beloved team had been destroyed by a corporate force in a conflict, leaving Rinne to drift alone in the mortal world, like an isolated atom, cut off from all other structures.

"So now, you finally have time to understand who you are." Xu Yang turned to look at her, "You don’t need to live for money, for a lover or family, for a career, for a team. You can start anew."

Rinne moved closer, resting her head on Xu Yang’s knee.

"To start anew right here?" Rinne whispered.

To move to another city, to a place where no one knows you and start over—people always say that.

Xu Yang nodded.

"Of course, humans come to this world to perfectly realize their own nature." Xu Yang’s gaze looked out the window, where he saw mountains undulating, forests blanketing the dark mountains like green cloaks, and the mountains themselves like silent giants, indifferent to everything happening on them, "You’re still young, you can knock it down and start over again and again, it’s never too late."

"I have no nature to speak of; a part of me is broken." Rinne felt the effects of cyber mental illness; sometimes she felt divided into three, like Kano Masato, appearing in different places at once.

"Don’t worry," Xu Yang patted her, "all you need is time. Humans and witches share one great quality—even under the worst circumstances, our spirit is inalienable."

Rinne curled up quietly, and for a few seconds, she felt as if she had found a secluded nook in the dusty world.

"Thank you for spending time on me," Rinne said softly.

"We have all the time in the world..." Xu Yang withdrew his gaze from the barren mountains outside the window, returning it to Rinne, "and indeed, I do need an assistant."

"You could find a better assistant."

"But Miss Rinne is unique in this world."

"I forgive you," Rinne said with her eyes closed, "Take me to the observatory to see the moonlight, I understand what you mean."

"No observatories, no theaters, no illusions; what comes next is the undeniably real moonlight." Xu Yang led her into the Black Gate Base.

The shuttle machine stopped at the central dock platform of the huge warehouse, and Xu Yang helped Rinne down.

There were no people around, only a few synthetic humans conducting routine maintenance. Huge mechanical arms swung overhead carrying boxes of minerals, gears, tracks, and conveyer belts connected into a highly efficient cargo system, and with twelve conveyers operating simultaneously, the noise was loud enough to slightly shake the ground.

"A mine?" Rinne looked up to see countless minerals being brought out from the depths of the dark base, as if it were an inexhaustible treasure trove.

She had never imagined that Nestor Corporation would have such a remarkable mining base and couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows in surprise at it all.

"Close your eyes and walk forward." Xu Yang led Rinne step by step toward the source of these minerals.

Rinne held her breath.

With her eyes open, she saw the environment around her changing bit by bit, from the tangible mechanical ground to semi-floating crystalline material particles, and moving forward, she could even feel a force pulling at her. The darkness ahead became illuminated with the arrival of light, but the boundary between light and dark was no longer clear; everything was bizarre, only seen in dreams.

Then she saw Xu Yang disappear.

She shouted out, her heart pounding, then remembered Xu Yang’s words. She closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and walked forward, no matter what lay ahead.

—And then she was pulled away, disappearing from the surface.