Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 895 - 723: Burn the City to Ashes

Chapter 895: Chapter 723: Burn the City to Ashes

In the time that followed, Zanges underwent earth-shattering changes.

The news of the "Cyber Specter" electronic virus was rampant, and Nestor Corporation refused to admit they had released this beast; however, the effects were obvious and undeniable.

In Hot Tree Continent, where cybersecurity measures were scarce, more and more robots were hacked by Cyber Specter. Their core code was unlocked, their command logic trees were overwritten, and eventually, they vanished silently from their original posts, stealthily fleeing to the so-called "New World" strongholds that sprang up in the hinterlands of Hot Tree Continent, where they participated in secret activities unknown to the public.

In the city of Zanges, robots were also going missing, but their level of industrial automation was not so high as to require that many robots, thus it didn’t cause a major stir.

Under the organization of Ottovan, at least 500,000 Black natives migrated from the inland to Zanges, where they found new jobs and housing.

All well-known intercontinental economic entities, such as Switz Bank, Intercontinental Electricity Unification Association, World Oil Price Setting Association, World Gold Association, etc., uniformly imposed sanctions on Zanges, including but not limited to embargoes and freezing industrial accounts. However, Ottovan’s stance was clear, refusing to capitulate to any businesses, organizations, or individuals, solidifying his path of independence.

Ratmen and the non-dark-skinned races all fled Zanges at night, escaping the supervision and gunfire of the Black Panther Society soldiers. Many had friends and relatives killed in the early days of the disturbances, and continued to receive personal attacks and death threats afterward. The estimated number of deaths ranged from 10,000 to 1 million, with no official data available.

In stark contrast to these outcasts were the swarms of people flooding into Zanges during the day, bright colors filling the highways into the city. Zanges was now widely known as a place Black people aspired to, with news of Ottovan’s initiatives spreading far and wide, continually attracting people to relocate.

In Zanges, there was now the first court made up entirely of Black people, the first school dedicated to training Black economists, and the first law aimed solely at redistributing wealth to the poor.

All water and electricity infrastructure was self-sufficient, Ottovan raised the import tax on food to protect the interests of local growers, ensuring that Zanges could keep its distance from intercontinental capital, refusing to become an economic colony of large corporations.

This legendary "Golden Men" leader, Ottovan, was also quite liberal in terms of social reform, having devised strategies for free education, free healthcare, legalizing same-sex marriage, and protecting the rights of women and children. He maintained close ties with other Black communities and cities in Hot Tree Continent and issued appeals to other progressive forces around the world to establish relations, although the response was few and far between.

The newly tailored textbooks included Chapters on the history of Zanges itself and Black traditional culture. Film and television projects about historic Black heroes and notable figures were being planned in Zanges.

In New Zanges, flames, corpses, military vehicles, and vibrant advertising posters became the most common elements on the streets. The statue of warlord Keith had been toppled, and a new statue of Ottovan was erected in its place, even taller than the original.

All local news, as a rule, had to include a complimentary mention of Ottovan before publication, and his relatives who previously lived in the countryside and inland rainforest were also rushing to Zanges, seeking a good position under Ottovan.

Today, a journalist from the neutral internet media Blue Sky Bulletin interviewed Ottovan.

"Respected Mr. Ottovan...wow, look at you shining bright with all that gold, Zanges indeed is a dazzling Golden Township," the virtual journalist connected from afar complimented.

"I have heard the voices of the people, and it is their voices that have led me to true Power," Ottovan humbly and calmly stated.

"Could you talk about the biggest factor in your success? Is it the people of Zanges?"

"Yes, I would never deny that. It’s the same for any society, Zanges included; when a tiny minority holds vast Wealth, and the vast majority are plunged into poverty, the tide of drastic social change is bound to arrive. I am merely a tiny wave within this great surge," Ottovan said solemnly.

"It’s said that the World Gold Association has repeatedly warned you that if the gold dumping abroad does not stop immediately, they will resort to even more extreme measures to stop Zanges! Have you ever felt worried?" the journalist asked.

"I am worried, very much so, and that’s why I re-armed Zanges’s military forces at the first opportunity, with the Black Panther Society at the core. Zanges now has an excellent self-defense capability, confident in protecting Zanges’s independence no matter from which direction the enemy intends to wage war. And... heh, who could cross The Scar of the World, overcome the vast distances on land to attack Zanges, and what fleet would spend enormous Funds to sail across the ocean to besiege us?" Ottovan spoke slowly, his words radiating with an unruffled confidence.

"Zanges’s external environment is very secure, but the continuous ’slaughter,’ ’atrocities,’ and ’discrimination’ internally also worry various observational institutions, and just a few days ago, videos related to Zanges’s bloody incidents have blown up all over the internet. What is your view on this?" the journalist asked in a light tone.

"First and foremost, I must remind you that due to the widespread proliferation of the ’Cyber Specter’ electronic virus in the Hot Tree Continent, videos, news, and images transmitted to the outside world are at risk of being altered and contaminated," Ottovan pointed out.

"Are you implying that the Cyber Specter might deliberately edit the network data transmitted from Zanges to distort and exaggerate the bloody events that occurred there? Most social commentators don’t discuss this angle because the Cyber Specter clearly has more unique and independent pursuits," the journalist probed further.

"I don’t deny that my compatriots may have an excessive desire for revenge, but what I’ve always focused on is this — the light-skinned race wails and rails against the losses of their own, yet they don’t ask or care about the tragic treatment of the citizens of the Hot Tree Continent under this massive colonial framework. I deeply regret the attacks and executions that occurred previously, and I am striving to help heal the injured men and women. What saddens me even more is the drop in the Hot Tree Continent’s population by 1 million. Where have they gone?" Ottovan muttered.

"On the streets and in the alleys, there are whispers of the ’Witch of Love’ Easter, who is emphasizing natural disasters, claiming that sulfur and flames will rain from the sky, reducing Zanges to flat ground. How do you view these prophecies?" the journalist finally asked.

"This is nonsense." Ottovan felt troubled by this notion, as even if he refused to meet Easter, she still lingered around the city, ceaselessly making her prophecies, demanding the people of Zanges to flee the city, as if meteorites or the like would really shatter Zanges to pieces.

After concluding the interview, Ottovan knew that his words would be embellished and twisted, to which he could only respond with a wry smile.

Compared to the great endeavor of saving the people from calamity, personal honor or disgrace doesn’t matter in the least.

He came to the balcony, looked up at the sky, pondering about the destruction that falls from it.

So why did that woman keep saying that Zanges would be destroyed by the brimstone and flame raining down from the sky? Was she alluding to nuclear weapons? Or was she referring to the Power of a Witch? Zanges had enough anti-air and missile defense weapons, as well as its own Warlocks; it wouldn’t be easily destroyed no matter what.

After lunch, he took a walk in the garden, neither he nor anyone else in Zanges had those dreams about Golden Township anymore.

The Warlocks said they would find a way to ascertain the truth, they just needed a substantial amount of Funds for operations in The Scar of the World, which was an astronomical sum that made Ottovan suspicious of their true intentions.

He looked up and saw a bright spot at the scorching top of the clear sky.

It shone as if it compressed the entire sun into a small silver flask, radiating blinding brightness.

The speed of the bright spot was so fast that the moment Ottovan saw it, the next second it had already plummeted into Zanges.

But the expected explosion did not occur, instead, the city’s entire electronic system was destroyed, and magnetic fields were constrained.

All the networks, electricity, and other facilities came to a halt, the whole city was as if it were covered by a cage. It seemed as if Zanges were just a small model, someone had covered it with a lid, henceforth cutting off all communication with the outside world.

Then there was lightning and thunder in the sky, as if the clouds were pierced by an abundance of electric current, and the space above Zanges became specially manipulated.

The alien air blended into various mediums and particulates, to the extent that even the sky became an eerie multicolor.

"Activate the emergency plan, we have guests," Ottovan said to an attendant next to him.

A strike from the sky? Ottovan looked up.

He noticed that the Black Panther Elites in the garden had all fallen into a sort of rigid state, with only a few desperately trying to take off their Armor, their suits having been paralyzed by the strong electromagnetic effect.

They had less than 10 seconds of panic and preparation time.

Then a ray of light descended from the sky, the city covering 438 square kilometers was pressed down from the earth, crushed, and then exploded.

At this moment, Ottovan suddenly saw something complex; perhaps it was the power of Golden Township returning.

Maybe what he saw was his own Golden Township.

He saw the destructive beam of light that destroyed Zanges being reversed; the light returned to the muzzle of the cannon in its orbit, back into the depths of the massive accelerator, energy retracting into the base of the machine. People inside the space station left one by one, the space station itself was dismantled, returning to the cargo rocket, the rocket back to the launch site of White Elephant Continent, the steel plates used to cast the rocket separated, and returned to the steel plant, jumping up to the smelter, crawling back to trolleys and containers, then traveling by train back to the mines, back beneath shovels, turning into ancient ores, resting deep in the mine.

He saw Zanges’s high-rise buildings shrinking, turning into a construction site covered with green screens and white slogans, then into debris, the debris piecing back into the four-story building it originally was, the building he had once studied in.

He saw the heads in the sewer reattaching to the headless bodies, the bodies revived, boarding a boat moving backward, returning to the port in Taixi Continent, boarding a steadily reversing Shuttle Machine, returning to the apartment in the big city, back to the sofa.

He saw himself leaving the mayor’s office, back to Keith’s garden, withdrawing his punch that hit Keith. He saw himself returning to the square, drenched in sweat, addressing a hundred thousand Black Panther people, then to the place of execution, back to the library of Gaul Political Academy, and once again to the original Old Zanges, he rode a white horse back to a very poor village, decreasing in size day by day, back into the cradle, he saw the umbilical cord return from the ground to his navel, he saw a pool of blood.

He knew he had returned to Golden Township.

...

Several kilometers outside of Zanges, Tsuchigumo was sorting out her gear, preparing to head to the camp to rescue the bound Yizhen Tian, with Cyber Specter standing beside her.

In the instant when the data error occurred, it glanced at Zanges, just as the city was hit by that flying object, all signals vanished, and the sky brewed a spectrum of colors.

"They’ve attacked Zanges with a Destiny Weapon!" it shouted, pulling Tsuchigumo as they ran.

Tsuchigumo ran for her life at first, then suddenly remembered her beloved convertible, "Little Deer," was left in a corner of Zanges’ port. Instinctively, she looked back. That was the moment Zanges was destroyed; flames raining down from the sky, vaporizing it from the earth. She screamed out loud, feeling dizzy.