Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 822 - 676: The Truth About Death

Chapter 822: Chapter 676: The Truth About Death

From a country girl, to The Outcast, to an awakened Witch, and then to the Witch Goddess, Farosa’s dignity grew day by day, becoming deeply embedded in the hearts of her witch kin. Even Xu Cheng knew that in moments of extreme peril, one should pray to Farosa, who might extend a helping hand to her witches.

Thus, while dodging the laboratory’s security personnel, Xu Cheng loudly prayed in her heart, sending out a silent scream.

"...I implore Farosa, the Witch Goddess... In this moment of tension, lend me your support..."

For an instant, Xu Cheng felt she had established a psychic connection with the distant, intangible deity.

The sensation of a witch connecting with her goddess was incredibly subtle and profound, leaving an indelible mark on Xu Cheng’s life.

Reaching for the heavens, vast and boundless, Farosa seemed like a sky full of stars to Xu Cheng at that moment, or, in Xu Cheng’s eyes, she might as well have been the starry sky itself.

Xu Cheng felt as though she had shrunk to one percent of her size, a mere bean in the universe, while Farosa radiated divine majesty.

She ran forward, feeling her body becoming lighter.

Four security personnel were chasing Xu Cheng from behind.

They wore white uniforms, with pistols and stun batons attached to their utility belts, knowing full well that if Xu Cheng escaped from the laboratory, it would spell disaster for them. Therefore, they dared not delay.

Seeing Xu Cheng muttering under her breath, they quickened their pace and preemptively set up a drone interception from the corridor ahead.

Two surveillance drones swiftly moved to intercept Xu Cheng, blocking her path, each drone equipped with a potent electroshock device that, despite the risk of harming Xu Cheng, they could no longer be concerned with at that critical juncture.

The drones rapidly charged up, the engines inside their armored shells buzzing, and electrical arcs flickered.

"Ah... Farosa..." Unable to hold back, Xu Cheng exclaimed aloud.

The silent prayers in her heart broke through the chains of language, and Farosa’s true name slipped from her lips as if laying down a law upon the land.

Buzz—

An ominous hum resonated all around, followed by silence.

An invisible influence had descended; all shouting, alarm bells, clamor, and the sounds of running vanished as if everyone had become deaf and mute.

Right before gravity vanished, Xu Cheng made a jump, her body springing from the ground like a rocket. The other four security personnel, panicked, found themselves floating into the air, untethered by gravity.

The two drones also lost balance and smashed into the corridor ceiling rapidly, scraping silently along the top, their fragmented pieces assuming odd shapes as they floated gently in the air, almost like swimming fish.

Humans and objects alike floated quietly, like scattered garbage, utterly unable to control their own movement.

Initially, Xu Cheng’s jump was an unconscious reaction, but then she found herself hurtling straight towards the ceiling. Before she could hit it headfirst, she braced herself against the ceiling with her hands before sliding downward, where one of the security personnel was floating towards her.

He was shouting loudly, seemingly wanting to question what Xu Cheng had done, but Xu Cheng stepped on his head and, while pushing him toward the ground, used the reactive force to slide herself in the opposite direction.

The further away from the anomaly, the more pronounced the gravity became, allowing Xu Cheng to land on the ground in a parabolic arc. She quickly crawled on the ground to reacclimate to gravity before standing on her legs.

Huff, huff...

It must have been the Witch Goddess Farosa revealing her divine presence.

How terrifying the Witch Goddess is! Xu Cheng thought to herself.

"...This time you really did help, thanks. But I’ll still be keeping an eye on you; after all, you’re a bad woman, a bad woman..." mumbled Xu Cheng in her heart.

She now dared not think or chant Farosa’s true name silently—she was watching over everything from somewhere.

Snowball had disappeared, and Wolf Girl had disappeared. After extricating herself, Xu Cheng looked around and realized her animal friends had suffered a mishap, yet now she could only hide and wait for support. Surely the Bureau of Secrets, having received her message, wouldn’t leave her to die.

The N-003 Advanced Laboratory didn’t feel as welcoming as other Nestor Corporation facilities—cold and barren, it was like a white shadow growing within the heart of the corporation.

Xu Cheng spread her arms to maintain balance and quickly jogged in tiny steps across the ground, imagining herself as a mini balance scooter.

Sound and hearing had returned, and she could hear many people conversing on the other side—it was scientists and security staff discussing how to report Xu Cheng’s infiltration to the headquarters.

They intended to report Xu Cheng’s intrusion.

This was a confidential area; Xu Cheng wasn’t supposed to be here. She had to think fast—if she didn’t clarify the situation first, President Lila might see her as a reckless, spoiled brat, taking advantage of others’ affection and care without permission.

Peeking around the corner, Xu Cheng saw the path out of the building blocked by many security staff; she had no choice but to hide in a ventilation duct and then figure out a way to ask for help from outside.

Biting her finger, Xu Cheng wished she could fly through the sky or teleport instantly like 101, but that wasn’t possible right now.

Muttering ninjutsu under her breath, Xu Cheng couldn’t sense the location of the straw man; it seemed Snowball had been captured as well.

First, Xu Cheng retreated half a corridor and ducked into a janitor’s room, sitting amid old unmanned drones and tool cabinets, nervously taking a sip from a milk bottle concealed within her clothing, the other hand clutching Xu Yang’s card.

Hide and stay hidden...

I must have accomplished something, thought Xu Cheng.

Having sent out the message about that "corpse," could the Bureau of Secrets use it to make a breakthrough?

Will the person stirring up trouble within Nestor Corporation be caught? Who will come to rescue oneself and one’s animal companions?

No matter what, one must stand tall and be brave, fear nothing in the face of anything. Xu Cheng silently swore to himself.

After all, he was raised single-handedly by his dad. When his father returns home and asks about his behavior, he can proudly say he didn’t disgrace his father.

Xu Cheng has always been brave... very brave, and also hard-working, and obedient...

Ah, come back soon, Dad...

Still wanting to be the little fool by Dad’s side...

Lifting his head and looking around the cluttered mess of the tool room, Xu Cheng’s mind gradually went blank, as if all his thoughts had fallen out of a large funnel.

Elsewhere, at Nestor’s Bureau of Secrets.

After receiving the message, A40 rushed to the director’s office at breakneck speed.

"Strategies Section Seven, a new discovery! Information sent by Snowball." A40 handed the information received to Seeking Shadow.

"...Autopsy report..." Seeking Shadow carefully studied the top-secret information from the N-003 Laboratory, going over all the details, "...seven fresh corpses from Haruto Pool Shop... The cause of death is..."

"Chopped up by Ratman?" A40 hadn’t read it himself yet.

"Stamp poisoning." Seeking Shadow explained.

"Stamps?" A40 tried to confirm.

"Yes, they overdosed on stamps, killing themselves. The autopsy report is clear, the composition of the stamps was off; they took counterfeit stamps, triggering shock and suffocation. That’s their real cause of death. There have been several similar cases domestically and internationally, all common issues in stamp trading." Seeking Shadow explained.

When Nestor Corporation settled on Charo Island, they also killed the island’s biggest stamp dealer, Halsan, and burned down his stamp plantation.

Since then, the "reliable sources" in the Eastern Hemisphere had indeed vastly diminished, and many underground markets could only pass off inferior goods as quality ones, hoping their customers would take longer to overdose and die.

After checking the report himself, A40 indeed read about the inferior stamps causing central nervous system damage, leading to paralysis and respiratory dysfunction. The seven were actually six men and one woman who went wild after overdosing and eventually all died in the private room of Haruto Pool Shop.

Two colleagues from Strategies Section Seven, Saiguchi Ryuuken and Ziyang Kui, also quickly arrived to meet in the director’s office.

"So the deaths of all seven people have nothing to do with Ratman?" Saiguchi Ryuuken pondered.

"Right." A40 had now connected the previous clues, "No wonder there were no signs of a struggle; I thought Ratman moved too fast, turns out they blew themselves up with stamps."

"Why do the media say it’s Ratman’s doing? What about the store manager? What did the scientific department lab do? Why would they..." Ziyang Kui was extremely troubled.

"Besides the cause of death, there’s another detail in the report. It mentions that the body parts have been harvested and stored in active support refrigerators, and were sent away 15 hours ago by an overseas special line truck provided by Phecda Express Company, not using Nestor Corporation’s official channels," Seeking Shadow slowly said.

"Overseas!" The color drained from Ziyang Kui’s face, "Could it be that the island residents’ parts are being traded to overseas buyers? Some members of the department have gone completely mad! When I visited before, they emphasized compliance, compliance, now look at this... is this compliant!"

"If it’s just isolated work, this method is inefficient. The only logical explanation is that they have established contacts with the intercontinental human organ trade market, sharing data and matching libraries, exchanging matching information with buyers all over the world, and are ready to harvest at any time," Seeking Shadow said with icy resolve.

"That’s impressive." A40 never imagined that the upright and honest Nestor Corporation would have such worms within.

Ever since its establishment, Nestor Corporation has relied on the efforts of front-line soldiers and Witches risking their lives to build its good reputation.

Once its reputation is tarnished, Nestor Corporation will also lose everyone’s trust.

The seven dead stamp users are just the tip of the iceberg; who knows whether the laboratory has done harm to other vulnerable groups and innocent civilians? Who knows how they store and use these blood-stained funds?

Such a scale of negative news is too horrifying. Once it spreads, Nestor Corporation’s credibility will plummet, and the promised "safety" will dissipate like a bubble.

These people in the laboratory... what difference is there from treachery?

They all thought of many terrifying futures to some extent.

Ziyang Kui took a deep breath, as if fearing one day in the future she too would die in a corner and then be taken away by anonymous staff in a vehicle.

On the operating table, she would be dismembered to nothingness, and buyers would be found around the world in the global matching library.

"Wait! Wait! Hear me out!" Saiguchi Ryuuken couldn’t help standing up.

"What is it?" Seeking Shadow turned to look at him.

"So many cases like this must have been done. Surely high-ranking officials in the scientific department are providing cover, maybe even people with high positions and power like Minister Kazama or Vice Chief Perlin are plotting behind the scenes. If we don’t report directly to the president now, they will definitely destroy all the evidence," Saiguchi Ryuuken’s voice trembled significantly.

"Just these documents alone are not enough to constitute evidence. Once we come clean to the president, she will definitely question the scientific department, and that’s when we’ll be alerting the enemy, giving them time to destroy evidence. So we must not act rashly. If we want to bring down these worms, we have to put forth all our energy and be careful and cautious to successfully execute justice," Seeking Shadow spoke earnestly.

"Yes..." Saiguchi Ryuuken sighed.

The documents sent in a hurry by Snowball were indeed incomplete, but if it wasn’t for Xu Cheng and her animal friends’ desperate efforts, the Bureau of Secrets would still not know such terrifying news.

Seeking Shadow lifted his head, his gaze falling on his own sword.

"I am the shadow of the Cyber Specter, evil shall be eradicated by me," Seeking Shadow said.