Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 857 - 698 Update Cyber Demon Shadow

Chapter 857: Chapter 698 Update Cyber Demon Shadow

Farosa’s clone was much more fragile than the original body; after too many uses, it dissipated and could only wait for the original to send another.

Xu Yang walked onto the deck for some fresh air.

The weather at Jialong Slope was much warmer than in the Northern Archipelago. The cruise ship Happiness was docked at the pier; he leaned against the railing of the cruise ship and gazed out, the sea gently scraping the bottom of the ship with a succession of soft sounds.

The cruise ship Happiness was originally a floating casino and also had its unique professional nature, allowing card sharps from all over the world to compete on board. The highest-level poker championship used to be held on the Happiness cruise every year.

However, like most competitive sports, to ensure fairness, it was necessary to separate the augmented humans from the non-augmented humans, which not only split the enthusiasm but also increased the difficulty of inspection.

The championship eventually turned into a competition among advanced prosthetics companies; the elements of skill and luck became less and less, and the results became increasingly unconvincing.

The Happiness cruise ship also became desolate, being bought by Kanako for less than 70 million.

This ship has had a fantastical history, Xu Yang mused. In the room behind him, funds worth tens to hundreds of billions had vanished overnight.

Xu Yang did not dream, for otherwise, he would have inevitably dreamed of matters related to Golden Township.

Other people’s dreams have been tainted by gold. Pan Ruiyi dreamed of eating a barbecue restaurant with golden walls into bankruptcy, while Kanako dreamed of spending money to buy Honma Noriko’s life, melting gold into juice and pouring it down her throat.

This way, the influence of Golden Township magnified the cravings in people’s hearts, but Xu Yang wasn’t deeply affected.

As always, he managed his thoughts with Digital Mind, precise and tight, undisturbed by external factors.

In the distance, another marina area could be seen, leased by private clubs, with many expensive sports yachts moored.

A group of people stood on the embankment, lining up to take photos; they were local short video influencers and bloggers from Jialong Slope, while the real owners of the yachts sat on their boats, enjoying the vanity that came with the focused attention, their dress fashionable, defining their social circles by taste in clothing.

The influencers were doing the very popular question-and-answer style videos, starting by finding owners of mansions, luxury cars, luxurious shuttle machines, asking them "What is your profession?" obtaining a series of answers about entrepreneurs, senior management, senior software engineers, doctors, investment brokers, hired assassins, and the like.

Afterward, they would directly stop passersby and ask "What music are you listening to right now?" "Can I visit your apartment?" "Show me your list of prosthetics," and more, often producing trendy little hits.

Xu Yang had initially been looking around aimlessly until one of the influencers shooting videos approached the pier near the Happiness, waving at Xu Yang aboard the ship: "Hey, is that your ship?"

"It’s not." Xu Yang conversed with him from about 500 meters away, with a light screen controlling access to the pier walkway.

"What’s your job?" the influencer asked again, eyes bright with eagerness for some explosive answers to use in tomorrow’s content updates.

"I’ve been unemployed for a while, probably over 100 days without going to work." Xu Yang told him.

"Tough luck, buddy, people lose their jobs every day!" said the influencer sympathetically.

"I’m okay, I’d saved up a little money," Xu Yang hadn’t looked at his own accounts for a long time, as both Kanako and Lila would frequently send him money.

"Hope you find a new job; just being on that cruise is already pretty impressive! Have you considered joining any new companies?" he said.

"I’m already 31, no company would want me anymore." Xu Yang shook his head.

"There are ’Yi Face’ clinics everywhere on the streets; just get a new face! This handsome face of mine only cost me 5000. Hire a hacker to modify the murky records in the Corporate Alliance’s system, who’s going to find out." He chatted enthusiastically with Xu Yang, the gregarious module being a basic chip that practitioners should install.

Xu Yang chatted with him aimlessly, maintaining a detached tone while discussing innocuous topics.

Seeking Shadow drove up in a gorgeously sleek black sports car, pulling up at the entrance to the pier.

As soon as she opened the car door, the influencer approached and struck up a conversation with Seeking Shadow.

"Hey, what’s your job?" the influencer asked enthusiastically, activating the recording feature of his prosthetic eye.

Seeking Shadow warily activated her anti-scanning device, making her face appear as a blur on any photographic equipment.

"I am the director of Nestor Corporation’s Bureau of Secrets," she told the influencer.

"Wow! Wow! That’s really rare, Nestor Corporation! The famous director of Nestor Corporation’s Bureau of Secrets..." The influencer was stunned, never imagining that staking out this pier would yield such an important figure, immediately considering switching to emergency live streaming mode.

Seeking Shadow closed the car door and took out her luggage from the trunk.

"Is this car yours? There are only four models like this in the entire Jialong Slope! What’s your monthly income?" the influencer inquired eagerly.

"The way you smooth talk makes me just want to punch you. I have official business to attend to, so don’t bother me anymore," said Seeking Shadow, stopping to speak to him earnestly.

"Wow... wow... okay, please..." The internet celebrity was startled and hurriedly stepped aside.

Seeking Shadow crossed through the light curtain, traversed the huge dock boards, and entered the Joy Cruise Ship.

She saw Xu Yang in the lower deck corridor.

"There’s a weird guy outside," Seeking Shadow told Xu Yang.

"I know... He’s a short video broadcaster. They collect fresh and interesting things, searching day and night for material so that users can keep seeing interesting short videos," Xu Yang explained.

"They’re like flies swarming around a corpse, mosquitoes searching for blood. The same happened at the Haruto Pool Shop previously, packed with these live-streaming ’internet celebrities’ and media figures, as well as those filming the scene against the Witch supporters. They just keep shooting, sharing new messages non-stop, using fresh news to stimulate people, turning them all into restless creatures!" Seeking Shadow had a wealth of related information stored in her memory archive.

"The existence of the Bureau of Secrets is to protect society as it runs ordinarily; many things are like this, they have to think of ways to increase their exposure to gain more fans," said Xu Yang.

"It’s like when I was violated, others just watched, incessantly watching, filming, broadcasting across various forums and media apps for attention," Seeking Shadow said with anger in her voice, "Only you rescued me and the other Synthetic Maids from that shop, ultimately drawing a line between justice and injustice. People like them stand on the side of injustice; they are born actors, internet celebrities, scriptwriters, and performers—all fake liars!"

For the next 30 minutes, Seeking Shadow babbled on, telling Xu Yang all sorts of things.

From various injustices at the societal level to the various limitations she encountered personally.

As the director of the Bureau of Secrets who always maintained a cold demeanor to strangers, Seeking Shadow finally found a chance to spill out her messy thoughts to Xu Yang.

Xu Yang listened silently, occasionally offering his insights.

"...In conclusion, I need to change to a new body, then find an even bigger robot to control," summarized Seeking Shadow.

"I haven’t forgotten the agreement we had before. I got Kanako to arrange it for you. You indeed need to become stronger, to manage a brand-new Bureau of Secrets, to strike hard at the bad guys," Xu Yang took Seeking Shadow to the headquarters of Kanako Xisheng.

The luxury car outside was lent by Kanako for Seeking Shadow; it now automatically navigated them back to Kanako’s office building.

"By the way, has anyone questioned you about what ’justice’ really is?" Xu Yang asked Seeking Shadow.

"Justice is self-evident," Seeking Shadow responded without needing to analyze.

"Hmm... But if you give justice a definition, it will be more convincing," said Xu Yang.

"Justice is self-evident," Seeking Shadow repeated, and then added, "Humans are born knowing what justice is."

"How did you come up with that idea?"

"Nidelaide introduced me to an anime game that had such a dialogue. In anime, when the hero faces the Demon King, the Demon King asks why you people rifle through villagers’ homes, barge into the Demon Realm, collect animations of beautiful girls losing battles, and slaughter innocent creatures—how can you call yourselves the companions of justice? The hero tells the Demon King: Justice is self-evident, everyone knows what justice is from birth. The Demon King is evil, and the hero is just. It’s obvious," Seeking Shadow explained.

"So you think you’re the hero?"

"I’ve never doubted it," said Seeking Shadow with conviction.

"Nidelaide is now at Jialong Slope, running his prosthetic factory, producing implants suitable for general use so that ordinary people can also afford quality enhancements."

"Yes, I was planning to see him; after I upgrade myself, I want to meet Nidelaide, he’s a good man," Seeking Shadow said with a hint of vague emotions in her tone.

Upon arriving at Kanako’s office building, in the testing area, engineers had prepared some new bodies for Seeking Shadow’s upgrade.

Originally a domestic service-type Synthetic Human, Seeking Shadow’s parts had suffered damage or become unusable during the years of intense combat and had to be replaced.

Just as humans transfer the soul, a metamorphosis of sorts, Seeking Shadow was determined to transfer herself into another body.

"We have already made a selection of the best and prepared three options. The first body is modeled after Black Fire Innovation’s flagship combat Synthetic Human, codenamed ’Annihilator,’ capable of undertaking large-scale solo combat and destruction tasks," the service staff guided Seeking Shadow, and the first body was equipped with an abundance of weapons, enough to eliminate enemies, and it looked like a monster.

"The second body was designed by Mr. Taro Tanaka, a specialist from Nestor Corporation, the latest E-class Synthetic Human. A-class specializes in combat, B-class in modern warfare, C-class in maintenance and logistics, and D-class focuses on accompanying and assisting with everyday human life. As for this experimental ’E’ class Synthetic Human, it is designed to be indistinguishable from humans at a higher level," the service staff showed Seeking Shadow the second option, the second body which looked completely like a woman, was a custom design, so it closely resembled Seeking Shadow’s old appearance.

"The third body is the ’Butterfly Shadow,’ a quasi-military Synthetic Human manufactured by Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing, extremely slender and lightweight, with the whole machine weighing just 25 kilograms, high physical strength, and capable of initiating optical stealth fields, very suitable for special warfare and covert operations," said the service staff lastly.

Any of these options were better than the ordinary domestic helper Synthetic Human that Seeking Shadow was currently using.

Seeking Shadow nodded and quickly came to a decision.