Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 859 - 700: Synthesis of Intertwined Love

Chapter 859: Chapter 700: Synthesis of Intertwined Love

Xu Yang, Xu Cheng, and Seeking Shadow took their seats.

The synthetic human girl named Vierre looked exquisitely beautiful, as if she had been directly copied from an anime poster. Xu Yang watched her prepare tea and coffee with graceful and calm movements, every gesture quite pleasing.

Nidelaide also had a soft spot for her.

"In the past, technical flaws were present, resulting in fan-made ’dolls’ that were always a letdown—perfect in the two-dimensional world, but something seemed off in reality. But now, AI design solutions are getting more appealing, and my favorite anime heroine has finally come to life," Nidelaide nodded frequently.

Xu Yang noticed that Nidelaide’s office walls were adorned with posters related to the works starring "Vierre." It seemed he was genuinely fond of that production.

Vierre served them tea, then gently stood aside as Nidelaide thanked her.

"Thank you, Vierre," Nidelaide said cheerfully, feeling contentment for the first time in many years.

"Thank you!" Xu Cheng also said, holding the teacup with both hands.

"What a cute child," Vierre said with a smile, looking at Xu Cheng.

"Vierre is really... amazing," Nidelaide said, excited.

"Wait a minute, but doesn’t she have a boyfriend in the original work? By doing this, don’t you feel like you’re on the same level as a Minotaur?" Xu Yang was quite curious.

"First of all, she’s also a ’robot’-like entity in the original work, accurately speaking, a war weapon girl that later becomes a doll specifically for typing. So it’s only logical for her to exist in this way in reality," Nidelaide simply explained.

"Oh..." Xu Yang found it quite peculiar. The world is full of wonders. Although it’s a bit perverse, since it’s Nidelaide, it was somehow normal.

"I am capable of accomplishing many tasks, please look after me," Vierre bowed gently to them.

Seeking Shadow became angry.

"Is your personal desire so important to you!" Sitting in place, Seeking Shadow looked up and shouted.

"Ah..." Nidelaide was startled by Seeking Shadow’s vigor.

"Disgusting! To satisfy your private passions, you specifically had a synthetic human twisted to your personality, turning her into your doll! Into your slave! You... Nidelaide, I really didn’t expect you to be like this!" Seeking Shadow yelled vehemently.

Vierre stood there, evidently bewildered by the sudden intense argument, as the built-in programming of the synthetic human couldn’t cover all situations.

"Gua ye..." Xu Cheng shrunk back into the depths of the sofa, observing the vicissitudes of human life.

Xu Yang decided to first hear how Nidelaide would make his excuse.

"Ah! Seeking Shadow..." Nidelaide was frightened, "How, how could it be like this..."

"I hate you!" Seeking Shadow shouted at Nidelaide.

"You’ve upset him; I want you to leave," Vierre stood between Nidelaide and Seeking Shadow, trying to intervene.

"I’ll leave then!" Seeking Shadow stormed out angrily.

"Ah..." Nidelaide stood behind his office desk, his face obscured, but his pain was discernible from his voice, "For the first time, to have my favorite anime heroine become a family member, and to be reunited with Seeking Shadow after so long, joy upon joy should have brought a dreamlike happiness... yet why did it turn out this way..."

"Seeking Shadow probably despises your treatment of synthetic humans as toys," Xu Yang said.

"But in my heart, Vierre is more important than even family! I have no family left, and I want to build one with Vierre!" Nidelaide emphasized.

"Maybe you have to make things clear to her," Xu Yang said as he took Nidelaide out to look for Seeking Shadow.

In the corridor, Seeking Shadow stood with his back to them.

Nidelaide stopped in his tracks, at a loss for what to do.

"Hmm... what to do now? This isn’t something that can be resolved easily." Xu Cheng whispered from the doorway, observing the scene before him with a seasoned gaze.

"Seek... Seeking Shadow! You’ve misunderstood! I’ve never thought of using Vierre as a tool, I’ve always taken great care of her. All I want is to live a happy life with her, to share everything I have with her." Nidelaide said with all his might.

Vierre also stepped out of the office to explain to Seeking Shadow.

"Yes — I’m so sorry, although I don’t know why you are so angry, Mr. Nidelaide has always respected me, he never even touched me." Vierre bowed to Seeking Shadow, "Please forgive Mr. Nidelaide."

Seeking Shadow didn’t say a word, just turned back to give Nidelaide a cold stare.

"Please, at least, don’t hate me!" Nidelaide pleaded desperately in the end.

"Does watching too much anime turn you into this uncle?" Xu Cheng pointed and remarked. This uncle’s style was different from the others.

"Yes, so we have to be careful..." Xu Yang picked up Xu Cheng.

Seeking Shadow didn’t speak, just walked back to his original office, assuming a ’keep out’ posture.

Nidelaide stood helpless for a while before slowly following him in. After that, he couldn’t manage to speak to Seeking Shadow, and could only be mystified.

"So, you came from Taixi Continent before?" Xu Yang casually said.

"Umm... yes, a lot has happened." Nidelaide appreciated Xu Yang for defusing the awkward atmosphere, "I was an orphan from East Taixi Continent, and at the age of 14, the orphanage director told me I owed 300,000 for living off them for so many years and asked me to go out and work to repay the debt. I then worked on the assembly line in a machinery factory in Wasso. I was relatively lucky, fairly ordinary-looking, and never went through any medical checks, so I didn’t mysteriously disappear for my organs or anything. Later I figured, working myself to death wouldn’t clear the debt, so I signed up for a show called "Life Gearshift."

"It sounds like an interesting show." Xu Yang had vaguely heard of it.

"Yes, the production team would randomly gift a lot of money to poor kids, the least amount being 1 million and up to 50 million, and then they would track their lives for seven years to see how they would spend the money. It was a very popular reality show. I got drawn the lowest amount, 1 million, but it was enough to get me out of that small place." Nidelaide mused.

"Sudden wealth must be very dangerous." Xu Yang pondered.

"Yes, the other 9 people from my period, under various temptations from outside, they changed. They started doing drugs, gambling, going to high-end clubs, getting involved with gangs, buying cybernetic implants to become super soldiers, or buying games, entering virtual pods, digital hallucinations, consciousness uploading, squandering money, being scammed... In the end, as expected, they died exhausted, disappeared after gambling debts, got stabbed in gang fights, and had their prosthetics and organs looted. The production team and the audience would scheme against them, push them to desperate situations, to make a spectacle of the show... This was the show, the audience watched them get instantly rich, then drop dead, and then burst into laughter. It perfectly conveyed the notion that the poor are short-sighted and ignorant. Poor viewers laughed at it, and rich viewers had their fun." Nidelaide said in broken bursts.

"But you avoided these temptations; you didn’t fall in." Xu Yang observed Nidelaide.

Having participated in that kind of show, Nidelaide’s appearance became even more intriguing. He wore a double-breasted overcoat, a black mask, and a hat, still looking like a street prosthesis doctor. Under his coat must be layers of modifications, too unsightly for public view.

"I first went to Seine Riverside City in Gaul. I found the implant technology to be so impressive that I ’wisely’ fitted myself with a set of implants convenient for work — prosthetic military hands, hollow storage, gear joint generators, an alcohol burner stomach, sonic shockwaves, mechanical grappling claws, electromagnetic shields, all these things. I also etched technical knowledge of implants into my brain. I thought I was smart, more rational than the others, and with these, I would be enough to become a high-level implant doctor, but I couldn’t make it. Climbing up required connections, experience, degrees, and more. Every month I had to pay over 10,000 for prosthetic maintenance, another 200,000 for high accommodation fees, security package expenses, and more... I was just like the other 9 people, trapped in a big pit!" Nidelaide sighed.

"Hold on," Xu Yang suddenly thought of something complex, "So that production team is still tracking and filming you?"

"The production team really hounded me for many years, but my only advantage over the others was that I saved some money. I traveled around, worked, lived frugally, indifferent to the audience leaving comments, writing letters, insulting, praising, mocking me. I tried to live my life my way. Of course, I gradually became down and out. That million was not enough at all. In this world, you dare not say that you have a lot of money with just 1 million! In the end, I went to the Northern Archipelago, planning to end my life with my anime, came to Anjiu City, lived in increasingly poor conditions, until I had to move to Aizu City’s Underground City. When my card was finally maxed out, the production team gave me an ending ’Full of wishful thinking and fearful caution, frugal to the end, yet still spent all the money, fallen to the crime-ridden Underground City of Aizu, fate unknown’..." Nidelaide lamented.

"So that’s why we met in that broken Underground City." Only now did Xu Yang understand all the reasons, he too had picked the lousiest Aizu City as his initial hiding place.

"The production team also had a control group; they found 20 children from wealthy families, gave each of them just 10,000, sent them to unfamiliar environments, and then filmed them the entire time as to how they collaborated, reasoned, had foresight, and were good at socializing and striving bravely, achieving good results, to prove their quality was higher than us ’exterminated’ poor people." Nidelaide said angrily.

"This is too complicated. How did you end up becoming Old Cui’s apprentice then?"

"Master Cui took off all my valuable prosthetics and sold them, replacing them with the cheapest and crappiest prosthetics from his shop. The difference in price was my tuition and living expenses." Nidelaide pointed to his overcoat, "What I’m covering up is the crappy and somewhat deformed prosthetics Master Cui put on me."

"Old Cui is really not considerate enough." Xu Yang couldn’t help saying.

"To be fair, for someone penniless like me, having the situation I am in now is already very good. Some are born with everything around them as a thrust, while others are born with everything as resistance." Nidelaide concluded.