Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 821 - 675: Crossing the Threshold

Chapter 821: Chapter 675: Crossing the Threshold

After receiving the message from A40, Xu Cheng was eager to try and returned to Xu Yang’s workspace to formulate a plan.

The room was deserted, leaving only walls filled with collections. The cold marble floor was covered with invisible soundproof magnetic tiles, making one’s footsteps eerily silent.

Xu Cheng often wandered here repeatedly, tidying up her father’s room, feeling as if she had inherited this studio and must take responsibility for it.

She took out a big box from the toy room, then entered the office to hold a meeting with her animal friends.

Xu Cheng climbed onto Xu Yang’s office chair, spun it to face forward, and sat up straight and proper. She rested her head on the backrest and placed her hands on the armrests midway. It gave her a sense of being a big shot.

Wolf Girl and Snowball were both in front of her.

"Quack... Quack," Xu Cheng reached for the ground, and Snowball fetched a corresponding toy from the toy basket as a marker.

The murder scene was Haruto Pool Shop, located on the outskirts of the economically devastated Asakusa District in the suburbs of Shangjing. The economic crisis had thoroughly decayed the area, and capable people had long since moved their families to more habitable communities, leaving the Asakusa District increasingly chaotic.

Seven people were killed in the pool hall, and surveillance footage captured two Giant Ratmen and one Black-Furred Rat Tyrant, whose size was large enough to be a major enforcer in the entire nest, leading the rat-human battles using heavy military weaponry in the past.

"Awoo..." Wolf Girl knew that Ratmen were hiding all over the Northern Archipelago, drawn to the islands by some Power. Whenever she wandered the streets of Shangjing late at night, she could always sniff out unusual rat traces.

Ratmen was one thing, but Ratmen committing murders was another.

Nestor Corporation had long been striving to create a "100% safe" perfect society, and this being Shangjing, where citizens are extremely sensitive to any unrest, news of Ratmen killing seven people was enough to shatter the illusion of a stable life, and potential dissenters would make a big deal out of it.

"Guabu, Guabu," Xu Cheng explained the issue to her animal companions. Dad had left, but he would return eventually, and in his absence, others had to step up. Just like now, they needed to investigate the rats’ issue.

Firstly, they needed to figure out how exactly the Ratmen murdered people, then investigate where these Ratmen’s underground dens were, bring the murderers to justice, and then eradicate the rat problem to demonstrate efficiency and attitude.

"Woof, woof!" Snowball trusted Xu Cheng’s leadership, but it doubted whether Xu Cheng had sufficient authority to investigate this matter.

Xu Cheng opened Xu Yang’s drawer, entered the password, and took out an identification card from the secret compartment, which belonged to Xu Yang himself. She strung the card with a red ribbon and wore it around her neck, tucking it inside her clothes to prevent it from being seen.

"Quack!" Xu Cheng and her companions set off.

Wolf Girl was responsible for covering their retreat, ready to rescue her whenever necessary. Xu Cheng, on the other hand, took Snowball into the laboratory, where Snowball would use its photographic eyeballs and the built-in hacking program of its chips to gather intelligence, to see what the Witch Researchers were up to and how much secret the bodies of these seven victims held.

Some things, some things at Nestor Corporation needed correction. Xu Cheng vaguely realized something, but being too young, she didn’t know where to start repairing or have the authority to drive internal reforms within the company.

Dad disappeared, unreachable like a phantom, probably now he also doesn’t care about this place as his focus has shifted outward. Xu Cheng pondered.

Xu Cheng could guess Xu Yang’s thoughts; Xu Yang was trying to infiltrate the network system outside the isolated island, looking to breach the heavily secluded Helis Sea System, eroding and stealing more important information.

He was looking for cracks, targeting directly the walls of Taixi Continent, Xia, and the West Coast. This was also another major feat, reconnecting the isolated worlds of networks.

Xu Cheng, being a little action taker, decided to do something big to surprise dad so that when they reunite in the future, she would have stories to share.

The matter with the Rat especially concerned her.

Snowball was in charge of driving a miniature Shuttle Machine, its two front paws operating the joystick, while Xu Cheng sat in the seat.

N-003 Laboratory...

Xu Cheng asked Rinne, and even Rinne, who is currently managing the Helis Sea System, couldn’t find any information because the research department’s access permissions were very special; Rinne only had security access, not the permission to probe around inside the company.

This was a suburban laboratory, not Nestor Headquarters. Xu Cheng thought to herself. Otherwise, she would continue acting as the Little Fool, wobbling into the laboratory, where everyone would only praise her cuteness, completely unaware of her real motive to steal the information.

The Shuttle Machine stopped at a distance, Xu Cheng holding a scroll in her mouth, dressed in children’s Ninja attire, while Snowball removed one of the exhaust fan blades, and she crawled through the ventilation duct into the N-003 Laboratory.

Crawling around, Xu Cheng was silent and noiseless. She had always been like this, silently moving through various corridors and rooms, and now she was merely relying on her past skills. The key was to balance her muscles, and being a child, she could easily use many areas inaccessible to adults.

In the lobby of the research department, that extremely astute Synthetic Human from the research department had previously unyieldingly turned away Seeking Shadow and his group, now could not detect Xu Cheng’s presence, and Xu Cheng easily entered the interior of the laboratory via the ceiling.

Looking down from the grid, she saw a labyrinthine corridor connecting different areas of the institute, with floor plans everywhere, facilitating the staff to quickly find their designated posts.

After ensuring it was safe, Xu Cheng opened the grid, hooking her foot to lower her body down, half of her body entering the hallway, looking towards the wall-hung map.

The room named "Digital Archive Room" caught Xu Cheng’s eyes, she noted the location, then quickly hooked herself back into the duct.

This was a cold-air duct, inherently icy cold, empty and devoid of airflow exchange, Xu Cheng moved slowly, when other workers passed by from time to time, she could only see their bald heads.

One after another, the heads of science officers, research assistants, and intern researchers swept across the corridor below, making Xu Cheng feel like she was entering a hairstyle museum.

Xu Cheng’s heart rate slightly increased, she really didn’t want to be caught. If discovered plotting something malicious, robots would capture her, lock her in the milk collection room for a while, waiting for the Director Miyazato Kazama or President Lila to decide Xu Cheng’s fate. Miyazato Kazama was a person who would not hesitate to use any means to achieve his goals, and Lila might not even care about who Xu Cheng was. No, it could be worse...

Snowball chewed through a fan, then jumped out from the exit to scout the path for Xu Cheng, then turned back to report to her.

"The good news is there is a separate corridor leading to the Digital Archive Room, completely devoid of any sign of people. The bad news is there’s a high-speed camera monitoring the path, and it requires level 6 decryption access to get through the door control. I don’t even know who in this company has level 6 decryption access, even Miyazato Kazama himself doesn’t have the right to enter this laboratory’s Digital Archive Room," Snowball told Xu Cheng.

"Guabu." Xu Cheng took out Xu Yang’s ID card from the inside of her clothes and waved it in front of Snowball.

"Woof?" Snowball expressed deep skepticism.

"This is Daddy’s card," Xu Cheng emphasized.

"But if just anyone who picks up this card could use it, wouldn’t the security at Nestor Corporation be a joke?" Snowball questioned.

"Guabu?" Xu Cheng had never thought about that.

"Clearly, there must be multiple verifications involved, checking your fingerprint, facial recognition features, and even mystical techniques to scan your soul," Snowball led Xu Cheng down the corridor.

She looked towards the electronic door at the end, which had a card reader looking like a large machine mounted on the wall, indeed not something you could simply swipe to enter.

If things went wrong, she would bring shame upon her father...

Xu Cheng started pacing in circles, thinking about how to safely pass the verification.

"I’ve learned the Substitution Technique from Sister Tsuchigumo. I’ll set a Ninjutsu Straw Man here first. If something goes wrong, I’ll switch places and escape quickly," Xu Cheng took out a miniaturized straw man that looked like Xu Cheng with a big smiling face from her bosom and placed it on the ground.

"The camera is over there; we will definitely be spotted," Snowball emphasized.

"We’ve come this far, there’s no turning back now," Xu Cheng sighed.

Snowball felt Xu Cheng had really grown up.

"Woof..." Snowball agreed, loyally watching the way they came for Xu Cheng.

Xu Cheng activated her Ninjutsu and rushed to the access control of the Digital Archive Room, swiped Xu Yang’s card in the machine.

She felt dozens, if not hundreds, of various beams of light sweep across her body, proving Snowball correct about the identity scanning involving thousands of checks. Sweat ran down Xu Cheng’s back.

Escape—

No! Xu Cheng clenched her teeth. She stood her ground; she couldn’t just flee recklessly. Calm down! Calm down!

From the visualized screen, she saw over a hundred red alerts, indicating it also detected the mismatch of person and card, but then they were all replaced by another sinister symbol, as if overwritten by a high-level electronic virus.

Xu Cheng didn’t understand what was happening, but she clearly saw the locking doors open before her, the well-fit alloy doors sliding along the track. She quickly pulled the card from the machine and dashed in like a player rushing towards the opponent’s goal in a soccer game.

The vital data area of the research lab was right in front of Xu Cheng, she hurriedly called for Snowball to follow. Xu Cheng was already overwhelmed by nerves, her whole body half-rigid, she could only hop along with one supported foot towards the search machine.

"Guabu..." Xu Cheng motioned with the mobile half of her lips for Snowball to quickly move its paws. It swiftly jumped onto the seat in front of the search machine, supporting itself with two metal hind legs, and its front paws rapidly striking the keyboard, began searching for entries about corpses and organs of the corresponding dates and downloading all the data.

Once Xu Cheng’s breathing calmed and her heartbeat stabilized, her little head slowly regained control over her body. Snowball had already come down with the needed data downloaded.

"Woof woof!" Snowball led Xu Cheng to run outside, and after she left, the doors behind her closed. All those beams, lights, and effects were left behind, and although she knew she was probably captured on camera, it was meaningless since Snowball had already sent the data to the Bureau of Secrets.

"We did it." Xu Cheng crouched outside the corridor, patting Snowball’s head.

"It’s more than that," Snowball looked up, "The report on those seven bodies is enough to get a fifth of the department fired."

"They were doing bad things?"

"Not just bad things, Xu Cheng, we’ve been drawn into something very complicated."

"We need to let Lila know, Lila can handle it, she might be watching us right now," Xu Cheng nodded.

"I hope you’re right. The president better notice what happened here, otherwise we might not get out safely today... " Snowball vigilantly looks ahead.

The research lab’s security personnel appeared in increasing numbers, eyeing Xu Cheng seriously, and gradually blocked the exit.

"I’m sorry, please come with us," the chief of security said.

"Guabu Guabu"—Xu Cheng called out for Wolf Girl in fear, but there was no response.

Wolf Girl must have been caught; is she okay? What would the lab people do to her?

At this moment, Xu Cheng thought of a great way to escape.

She quickly instructed Snowball to break through with her substitution straw man while she ran towards the opposite side, separating herself from the security guards.

"Hey! You can’t escape!"

Xu Cheng stubbornly ran down the hall, using walls of air to isolate the security personnel, while reciting in her mind.

"Most venerable Witch Goddess Lady Farosa... please listen to the small, small Xu Cheng’s plea... although I wasn’t very respectful before, this time..."