Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 89 - 89 72 Cyber Specter

89: Chapter 72 Cyber Specter 89: Chapter 72 Cyber Specter Under Xu Yang’s remote control, the sales robots scurried into the Anonymous like loyal dogs, lining up to await inspection.

Xu Yang took the armored boxes from their hands and then coded them to fly back to sleep, while also deleting his own operation records and tampering with the surrounding cameras, before he made the Anonymous depart.

The security team summoned by Feather Hunting Pavilion was about to arrive, and if they didn’t leave soon, they would be targeted.

Backed by Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing, with regular systems in place, they had standard procedures for dealing with such crises.

Two minutes later, a shuttle machine belonging to the damage control department of Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing approached the scene like a giant whale entering a narrow bathhouse.

This shuttle machine was twice as big as the Anonymous—classified as a large shuttle machine—hovering over the street, completely filling the road.

Its side-skirt armor slid open, and sixteen hovering cannons with purple trails rose up, forming an all-encompassing barrage that constantly scanned for targets.

Two elite soldiers clad in sturdy Power Armor leaped down, accompanied by a Witch, who flicked her Mana Sword Bundle in her hand.

The handle immediately lit up with a sky-blue Magic Blade, razor-sharp and with a solid core, while the edges continuously fluctuated and burst into flames.

For the Witch and the Mechanical Ronin, the situation had become the most dangerous.

It was their first heist, they were inexperienced, and the unexpected encounter with the “Cyber Specter” had them panicking, afraid to venture out lest they be shot, thus missing the best time to retreat.

Moreover, they were born and raised in Aizu City; their experience was limited and they had not anticipated the assertive force of a mega-corporation capable of dispatching such an elite Quick Reaction Force!

“Put down your weapons!” A Power Armored Soldier yelled, holding a revolving cannon, ready to turn them into a hornet’s nest.

Power Armor was an invincible land combat gear, evolved from individual exoskeleton armor, and had now become the standard issue of elite corporate security forces.

Very few external forces could directly breach these heavy armors.

The Witch’s complexion changed drastically, and given the situation, she had no choice but to fight fiercely.

She immediately summoned her magic power, prepared to incinerate these elite soldiers from the inside.

She released her power in full force, instantly causing them to feel scorching heat all over their bodies, an unbearable temperature that nearly melted their skin.

“Lu Jing!” Another Power Armored Soldier called out, while the Witch beside him swung her blade, not to attack, but to scatter her own magic power out into the air, forming an invisible barrier that impeded the flow of magic power.

As the fluid conduction in the air was cut off, the Witch could no longer continue increasing the temperature of her targets and suddenly lost her means of counterattack.

After a series of sweeping gunshots, both she and the Mechanical Ronin beside her were exterminated, killed on the spot.

“Oh!”

“We’re saved!”

“Finally!” Survivors trapped in the darkroom rushed out one after another, saluting their saviors.

“What happened?” One Power Armored Soldier went to search the room for the situation, while another went to retrieve the remains of the Witch, mainly aiming to recover the brain and convert the will into a personality matrix.

Once loaded into a robot, she could be transformed into a bio-engineered Witch and provide services for the company.

Her ability to raise temperatures was outstanding; she could be sent to the high-temperature physics lab or a power plant.

A personality matrix-transformed Witch would no longer advance in magic power, but would gradually decline, and so this method mainly served three purposes.

The first was as a punitive measure, a cruel punishment; the second was applied to newly captured Witches killed in battle to recover their residual value; the third was to continue to exploit the scientific potential of those Witches with rich research experience.

With the situation settled, the surviving clerks and customers couldn’t help but talk about the appearance of the Cyber Specter.

The mysterious and unpredictable Cyber Specter not only issued warnings but also shot and killed one of the robbers, leaving the rest in disarray and indecision.

Had it not been for the Cyber Specter’s intervention, they too would have been incinerated to dust like the security personnel.

“Were our sales robots hijacked?” A Power Armored Soldier hypothesized, “It’s a hacker, and a highly skilled one at that.”

“Killed by 14mm armor-piercing rounds,” another soldier examined the fallen cyborg, “The shooting distance was no more than 600 meters.”

“Check the nearby cameras.”

“The footage is damaged; the shooter was very careful.

There’s no trace of movement; maybe the shots were fired from the shuttle machine.”

“Lu Jing, write a report on the Cyber Specter for the supervisor, at least 6,000 words,” a soldier said to the thoughtful Witch beside him, “What are you thinking about?”

Lu Jing’s Witch power was “Anti-Magic Power.” Her magic was the complete opposite of other Witches, thereby capable of hindering other Witches from casting their power.

In a sense, she was also the bane of Witches.

But she was introverted and aloof, careless and easily distracted, slow to react, fond of text adventure games, and came to Kyoto Infinity for the purpose of buying character merchandise.

“Ah…

nothing,” Lu Jing shook her head.

She had just been thinking about the handsome guys from the romantic games that were like the Cyber Specter, dressed in black, tragically beautiful and powerful, skilled in hacking, and fighting for the weak.

They were men she went into debt to “pull” in the game.

As for the real-life Cyber Specter…

She had always been profoundly skeptical about him, always reminded of Xu Yang, the Neural Network Engineer who had defected from Kyushu High Pavilion.

If it were him, with a Digital Mind, he certainly could accomplish such tasks.

When she had heard the news previously, she envied the guy for having the courage to escape the prison-like existence of the mega-corporation and the fate they had laid out for her and others.

Unfortunately, he had been discovered and killed by Pan Ruiyi, the Witch from the Mobile Riot Squad, and was said to have died a most miserable death amid the chaos of the Rat Tide, when human life was worth nothing.

Pan Ruiyi’s power was also ranked among the global Witches; clashing with her meant certain death, and tearing apart Power Armor was nothing to her.

That Xu Yang, oddly fleeing to an obscure place like Aizu City, it wasn’t surprising that he died a violent death.

If only he had held out one more day, he might’ve witnessed the city swamped by fans of Suzukawa Kiyo and perhaps would not have met such a fate.

But Pan Ruiyi turned out to be the biggest winner.

It was said that she had even made connections with Xisheng Capital.

Leveraging this relationship, plus the merits of hunting down Xu Yang, she had risen consecutively in the security department of Kyushu High Pavilion.

She had already left the Mobile Riot Squad and no longer needed to supervise areas across the Eastern Hemisphere all the time.

Envy…

“In my view, this Cyber Specter might be a pretty talented hacker,” Lu Jing reflected and offered his insight.

“Whether it was before or now, it has been proven that the adversary has the ability to directly breach civilian and even the common corporate products.

We should make every effort to recruit them.”

“Then let’s keep investigating this Cyber Specter until we get to the bottom of it,” the Power Armored Soldier agreed, “and then we’ll see how to deal with them, whether to recruit, kill, or offer them a job.”

These armored elites were the backbone of the company’s security department, bearing the most arduous combat duties.

Their own competence was also very comprehensive.

Each one could stand on their own, and powerful companies would always invest in a team of such warriors to operate in coordination with the Witches.

Lu Jing nodded in understanding but felt a twinge of sympathy in his heart.

If Xu Yang were still alive, he might have become a symbol of hope for the employees suffering within the companies, pointing out that leaving the giant corporations could lead to a good outcome.

However, from past to present, anyone fleeing Kyushu High Pavilion or Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing had been invariably hunted down and executed without exception.

Our future is only to work until the last ounce of value is squeezed out of us, and then to be kicked away mercilessly.

A way out…

There is no way out, just hold on to your livelihood and don’t expect anything from tomorrow.

She posted a bounty on the local forums for information on the “Cyber Specter,” who had also made off with plenty of expensive armor!

Especially the legendary “Cloud Beast” armor.

If that guy were to use it for arming himself, it could create an unbeatable and terrifying entity.

On the Anonymous account, Xu Yang soon noticed that Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing was investigating the Cyber Specter on the forums, highlighting its recent interference in the operation of their store Feather Hunting Pavilion, and asking citizens to come forward with information eagerly.

The Cyber Specter would never show their true face; that was enough for Xu Yang.

The name may still be nebulous now, but it would be resounding in the future.

This monster could be a ghost, one lingering over the heads of corporate hegemony.

It was time to look at the collected armor.

First, he carefully examined and analyzed the information modules of the armor, altering the positioning systems and deleting the backdoors that Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing’s engineers could exploit, spending 5 minutes to clean it up thoroughly.

During his previous work on competitive business analysis, he had even developed strategies against the Neural Network Engineers of Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing to avoid being at a disadvantage in cyber warfare battles.

Now it came in handy, and he was well aware of their tactics.

“Do you like to wear armor in action?” Xu Yang showed Farosa the three Nano Armor cases he had acquired.

They didn’t look very big on the outside but contained worlds within.

If those items were stolen and sold off by that group, they could be traded for tens of millions in Funds easily.

“I don’t want that,” Farosa disliked any form of armor.

Witches should wear a large hat and a long, fitted robe.

“What about you?” Xu Yang asked Lila.

“Having another layer of armor on top of your mechanical body, your current ‘Sky Crane’ robot is designed for research, not combat.”

“Nano Armor is highly adaptable to human skin and difficult to fit onto machinery,” Lila lamented.

She, too, wished to upgrade to a more advanced military robot body, but the time hadn’t come yet.

Aizu City was still in chaos, and it wasn’t convenient to purchase products.

The three armors, according to the official introduction, included the “Tengu,” which was highly mobile, suitable for rapid engagement and using surprise to gain victory.

The “Flood Dragon” came with an all-around biosystem enhancement ability, raising the level of the combat experience.

“Cloud Beast” was specialized for stealth operations, capable of generating a cloaking field for optical camouflage and locking down network access points to resist scanning and hacking.

Setting aside the special effects of the three types of armor, Xu Yang planned to check their respective KM Ratings first.

The so-called KM Rating was an evaluation system dominated by the Corporate Alliance, with a perfect score of 150, used to assess the advancement of a technological product.

For instance, the “Eternal Dimension” game series developed by Lighthouse Core was rated KM60.

Average Power Armor was KM70, and the dark gold bullets used by Matteo and his team to limit the Witch’s Power, Xu Yang estimated, would rate around KM80.

After checking the KM Ratings of the three armors, Xu Yang found that the Cloud Beast armor reached KM65, while the other two were KM40, a gap so significant.

The ratings details were only accessible internally within the company, but just by looking at the scores, one could estimate that the technology contained therein was very high.

During his prior hacking, Xu Yang had also found that the Cloud Beast was a little more troublesome than the other two armors.

Based on his memories of previous corporate wars, soldiers clad in “Cloud Beast” had caused considerable trouble for Kyushu High Pavilion.

That settled it; he would wear that one, and the other two could be kept for collection.

Especially, he could give the Flood Dragon armor to Asa Katsuragi.

She didn’t like implants, so wearing a powerful armor was certainly necessary, and it could increase her combat level by several notches.

The “Cloud Beast” armor was encased in a square box, deliberately designed to mimic an antique style, with a long arm like a sword scabbard, topped with a golden beast head, resembling an unearthed artifact from ancient times.

Opening the Nano Armor case, there was only one black long-sleeved vest inside.

As soon as he put it on, he immediately felt it expanding and covering more area on his body.

The armor was woven from highly stretchable nanofibers and stored a large number of Nanobots that could rapidly replicate themselves, enveloping his body, and was a crystallization of advanced technology.

Some speculated that wearing a Nanosuit felt like having countless bugs crawling on your skin, but it was more like being enveloped by numerous small whirlwinds.

They swiftly spread out, clinging to his skin and forming a black skin-tight Armor.

Some of the Nanobots penetrated deep into Xu Yang’s body and connected with his neural circuits, allowing him now to control them through Digital Mind as well.

The Nanosuit had begun to work.

A sense of Power…

surged!