Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 760 - 632 Yibei City

Chapter 760: Chapter 632 Yibei City

At 5 a.m., after a night of rest, they set off again in the dark.

Without disturbing the miners who were still resting, the Shuttle Machine was waiting at the exit to take them closer to Yibei City.

"I’ll go ahead and clear the way on my own," said Pan Ruiyi, who did not board the Shuttle Machine, instead spreading her massive Iron Wings and flying far away with the engines engaged. Little Fool watched her leave and knew that his thoughts from yesterday had been correct.

The professional soldiers covered Xu Yang as they boarded the Shuttle Machine, a slender and heavy model "Male Deer-B." It was suitable for transporting large amounts of materials, and it could carry up to 24 passengers. Most of the soldiers were already seated in their positions.

Wolf Girl returned to her original form. Her tailor-made Witch Armor used a modular design; as her body reverted to human, the armor pieces distributed across her wolf form reassembled, perfectly forming a complete set of precise armor without any gaps as her human shape emerged.

She lowered her helmet visor to cover her face, feeling exceptionally cold because the internal insulation suit had inevitably burst during the transformation. She didn’t know where to get a replacement under these conditions and hurriedly shivered her way onto the Shuttle Machine, sitting down near the warm engine hood.

"I’ll protect your safety," Ise Hanabi said as she boarded the Shuttle Machine with her Great Cross Sword on her back. She had supplemented her equipment and then quickly skimmed through the battle report, "...Yibei City is currently under heavy attack."

"Is the situation that bad?" Xu Yang said when he saw Ise Hanabi’s grave expression.

"As we expected, the network hubs of Yibei City have been destroyed. That’s why we’ve lost contact with most of the stations, and we cannot cover the entire combat area with information methods. Warfare has regressed by more than a hundred years. We have to rely on signal scanning and reconnaissance drones to collect data," Ise Hanabi said with a sense of helplessness.

The Shuttle Machine roared as it took off. Its four engines and large rotary wings spun at high speed, lifting it from the snow and tilting toward Yibei City. As long as they could repair the city’s core network hub, the Helis Sea System would be able to come back online and operate, allowing connection with the city’s defense units and any survivors.

And there was the local archive. Xu Yang thought deeply. The secret records of the entire city’s history, the hidden treasures of each village, Chengxia Town, and the noble families, were all stored in the archives of Yibei City. If they could restore them one by one, they might uncover the truth of Yibei City’s super-ancient civilization.

As the Shuttle Machine moved, they noticed a large number of Frost Giants migrating below, a sight that was daunting. There were more than a hundred of them. Previously, just a few Frost Giants outside Tsukubetsu Mine had caused significant trouble, and the sheer number now was enough to make them extremely tense.

"I thought they were wiped out in yesterday’s bombing. Yesterday, we launched 8 waves with 120 aerial fighters, sweeping through the entire suburbs of Yibei City," Ise Hanabi said with a wry smile.

"We need to get in touch with the security forces of Yibei City," Xu Yang said as he checked the signal connection status. Initially, Yibei City had thousands of points of light, with everyone’s terminals connected to the network. Now, with the Helis Sea system room destroyed, only about 100 terminals were kept in communication using shortwave or satellite technology.

He tried to communicate with Yibei City’s defense center, but no one was online to respond. Only an intelligent dialogue archive exchanged status updates with Xu Yang.

"Hello, sir."

"Nestor Corporation authority, open the verification interface."

"Verified, welcome security contractor."

"Connect me with Yibei City’s Defense Manager, Hojo Hiromitsu," Xu Yang swiftly sent the message.

"Mr. Hojo died at 22:00 last night on the way to Shelter 19."

"Connect me with the Deputy Manager, Imamura Kazuo."

"Mr. Imamura went missing during a storm on his way to inspect the defense line at Highland 85."

"Connect me with Squad Leader Yoshiyama Isamu."

"There has been no update to Mr. Yoshiyama’s information for 10 days."

"Forget it... Where’s the duty personnel?" Xu Yang inquired.

"All personnel have been assigned to defend the heating tower, sir. If you are satisfied with this machine’s response, please continue to support Night Gate Technology. Night Gate Technology, the unparalleled choice for your smart living." It said.

Because they couldn’t afford the customized version, they were using the generic version filled with advertisements, Xu Yang silently noted.

The situation was extremely dire. The great cold wave had completely torn apart Yibei City’s defenses. Soldiers were either killed in action or frozen to death, with the survivors barely holding their positions according to the company manual, let alone having full network communication capabilities. The efficiency of updating information between nodes was very low.

However, this gave him a piece of intelligence; the main heating tower in Yibei City had not yet fallen. There was still a chance, at the very least, people wouldn’t freeze to death under the frosty sky.

Yibei City still had 5 million citizens... trembling in their snow-packed apartments, rented rooms, private residences, and shelters, hoping the security forces could repel the monsters and that the municipal companies could maintain the infrastructure in time.

As the Shuttle Machine approached, Xu Yang looked far into the distance and saw the faint lights of Yibei City scattered about.

Especially the heating towers built by Nestor Corporation, towering like colossal pillars at the center of Yibei City, gleaming with golden light amidst the endless blizzard and chaotic snowflakes, providing the entire city with precious and ceaseless warmth, securing the citizens’ heating safety.

As long as it hadn’t fallen, there was still a glimmer of hope for the city.

"We’ve detected the presence of that gigantic threat—heading towards Yibei City," the scout reported.

The airborne colossus dubbed "Unknown Creature No.1" was drawing near Yibei City, with at least 3,000 to 5,000 Primitive Ice Giants closing in, evidently intending to use the cold winds and monstrous troops to completely destroy Yibei City. Thus, Nestor Corporation would permanently lose this Northern island, and the Frost Spirits would use it as a base to continue their assault on the Northern Archipelago.

"Let’s go, first we need to restore the network node." Xu Yang had the Shuttle Machine take him to the network service center of Yibei City. The entire building occupied a whole block, expansive in area, but only four stories tall. The above-ground part stored servers rented by other companies, while the underground part housed the Helis Sea System, which connected all communication services in Yibei City and the surrounding regions.

Once the Helis Sea System was fully repaired, coordinating the work of Yibei City and defending against the severe winter disaster would become a hundred times easier. Nestor Corporation’s troops could also pinpoint the enemy and launch precise attacks on the adversary, permanently driving the supernatural entities out of the island.

Xu Yang and team landed on an elevated platform, with Ise Hanabi and 20 soldiers following closely. The Wolf Girl was feeling cold, so Little Fool and her friends stayed on the Shuttle Machine.

"Something precisely took out this network service center; we must be careful in our actions," Xu Yang said as he trudged through the harsh winter, starting the search from the building’s rooftop entrance downwards.

According to the logs, he could reconstruct some of the events. The security staff and network technicians were killed instantly, as if some invisible force had passed through the entire building, eliminating everyone.

"There are frozen bodies everywhere."

"And frosted robots!"

"This place is too, too terrible..."

They continued their search, moving downwards. Because the network was paralyzed, even the defense facilities had not activated. The soldier leading the way smashed through the malfunctioning access control and looked into a small office ahead, where many people had frozen to death at their desks, their bodies completely covered in frost, dying a terribly grim death.

Xu Yang looked down toward the underground. As if his gaze could penetrate the floor, the Helis Sea System lay below them. Technicians were on standby in the rear, prepared with enough materials for repairs, and Xu Yang possessed the necessary knowledge to reboot the entire system. Protecting the millions of people in Yibei City and even the tens of millions on the entire island depended on whether the network communication services could be rebooted.

The cold wind blew chillingly towards them. Xu Yang’s shield automatically lit up, blocking the biting cold, and a soldier shivered uncontrollably, turning to his comrades in despair for help.

"I’m cold—so cold..." he muttered before his body quickly went limp, the other soldiers quickly supporting him.

"There’s a ’Phantom’ here..." Ise Hanabi said tensely, gripping her Great Cross Sword firmly, yet unsure of her ability to handle an intangible monster.