Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 91 - 91 74 Shenkong Tower

91: Chapter 74 Shenkong Tower 91: Chapter 74 Shenkong Tower Farosa walked forward, and as she moved away from Xu Yang’s invisibility field, the nanobots gradually became ineffective, revealing her blurry outline with a ball of red magic power clutched in her hand, which was very conspicuous.

“Ay—”

“What’s that…” A few men at the door pointed and chattered upon seeing Farosa’s hazy form.

“Uh—” Farosa looked down at her mist-like indistinct shape and immediately felt a wave of tension.

She couldn’t help but want to throw the magic power in her hand and turn back to flee, but she almost slipped on the trash and rat blood covering the ground.

Like a fool.

Xu Yang found it amusing and hurriedly stepped forward, scooping Farosa back into his arms.

“Wuu!” Farosa made struggling noises with her mouth but incessantly rubbed against Xu Yang, wanting to try some fun ways to play while invisible.

“Don’t move around.” Xu Yang caught Farosa and began to investigate the security background of the store.

He found an alley nearby and dialed a contact number, but it was constantly busy.

The security company was guarding over a dozen other stores in Aizu City, and normally they could cope, but in the face of such widespread fires, they couldn’t be everywhere at once and were unable to dispatch forces to protect their assets.

It seemed they could only lend a hand themselves; otherwise, these stores were going to be dismantled soon.

The group of people left inside the store were so wantonly destructive that they seemed to be a gang accustomed to doing evil.

Several rōnin outside held swords and guns in wait, ready to move the female synthetic humans as soon as the “big brothers” inside were done, while also recording and uploading videos to boast about themselves.

On the other side, after uploading the report on the Cyber Specter, Lu Jing and two heavy armored soldiers were appointed by the company to form the Aizu City Rapid Response Team.

They would be stationed in Aizu City for the long term, closely monitoring the situation within the city and reporting valuable information at any time.

Lu Jing was constantly monitoring the forums and, upon seeing the upload of such an extremely sleazy video, immediately felt alert.

“We have to find out where this is happening, and then intervene…” She was acquainted with the two soldiers, so they communicated a lot.

“Can’t find the exact location.” The soldier glanced, “And the subject is a synthetic human.

If it was a real girl, we might take a look, but let’s leave the synthetic humans alone.”

Lu Jing felt a chill in her heart.

These female synthetic humans, they looked like humans, sounded like humans, acted like humans, and even their thoughts and emotions resembled those of humans, but they could not become human.

Conversely, she had seen too many company people, who had been transformed to the point of losing their humanity, emitting synthesized electronic voices, acting worse than pigs and dogs, cold-blooded and ruthless, yet they were still considered humans.

The difference was incomprehensible.

At the moment, with no external forces to intervene, she could only watch these female synthetic humans being driven to breakdown, a feeling that cut Lu Jing to the heart, as her strong empathy made it feel as if she herself were being tormented.

Outside the store, Xu Yang held Farosa in his arms, with her peeking out from his embrace.

Xu Yang hacked into an amplifier originally used for advertisements inside the Synthetic Human Store and entered information.

While they were in the midst of their fervent actions, with the cries of female synthetic humans incessant in their ears, the store’s speakers suddenly started working.

“This is a warning, you must leave quickly, or punishment will swiftly descend.”

Xu Yang deliberately tuned the synthetic electronic voice to be deep and husky, recording it to later serve as the iconic entrance sound effect of the Cyber Specter.

“Ah?”

“What’s that?” They heard the mysterious warning, feeling a twinge of nervousness.

It was already quite risky to stay there causing trouble; now, with this scare, they became even more paranoid.

After all, a few iron-skinned girls were not as important as their own lives.

Xu Yang then activated the broadcast’s loop alarm mode, emitting a series of piercing buzzes, causing them to worry about the imminent arrival of the company’s security services.

Many reluctantly fixed their clothes and looked back at the female synthetic humans with a longing.

Limited by their programming, although the synthetic humans could perceive their own pain, they were forced to make V-signs with their fingers, cheeks blushing, while emitting compliant voices.

“Damn it, who’s trying to scare us!”

“Could it be that ‘Cyber Specter’ again?” A few daring street rōnin at the door became angry, as they were waiting for their turn.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out, and one of the rōnin immediately fired at the amplifier, damaging it.

Xu Yang, still invisible, didn’t hesitate to use the Well Tiger to fire a shot at the side of a rōnin at the shop entrance as a warning.

Startled, he jumped at the sight of the bullet hole beside him but couldn’t find the source of the shot at all.

“We’re under attack!”

“Hiss—”

“It’s real!”

“A phantom!” They couldn’t see the shooter, but the power of the bullet was clearly visible.

They felt bursts of unease and hurried away.

Soon, only the 5 humiliated female synthetic humans were left in the store.

They were the most precious and intricately programmed in the store, far surpassing the other ordinary models in both hospitality skills and the level of biomimicry.

After the attackers left, they could only take care of each other, cleaning and repairing one another.

“Stay here, or go help the Cyber Specter?” Xu Yang’s voice emerged from invisibility.

“Ah…”

“Pain, damage…”

“Take us with you!” The female Synthetic Humans were still capable of generating a range of emotions like fear and gratitude and, realizing they had been rescued, quickly got up.

Since there were some people loitering around, Xu Yang ordered them to leave through the back door, heading toward the dark underground alleys, disappearing beyond the reach of surveillance cameras, and then moving on to Anonymous to leave them in Lila’s care before arranging their next steps.

Companies designed Synthetic Humans as tools, but now it was time to try and develop their new potential, to break free from their preprogrammed routines and find new possibilities for themselves.

“Can they give massages?” Farosa looked around as the female Synthetic Humans boarded.

“They can do anything.” Xu Yang taught Lila how to disable their positioning systems, and then continued his rush toward Shenkong Tower.

Synthetic Humans had enormous potential, especially suited for adding and downloading skill profiles.

Equipped with shooting and melee profiles, they could be combatants; with education profiles, they could teach.

They even had the potential to explore mathematics, philosophy, and art—all malleable talents who deserved their own place.

Lila closed the hatch, staring at the five exquisitely beautiful female Synthetic Humans before her, slipping into a daze.

Could she also be a Synthetic Human?

Lila herself wasn’t sure of her current state, triggering a series of self-identity confusions.

Lila was neither artificial intelligence nor a Synthetic Human, nor a Witch, nor a biological entity, nor a robot.

Then what, exactly, was Lila?

She didn’t know the answer to this question but followed Xu Yang’s instructions to dismantle their positioning chips and streaming data services to prevent tracking.

Accordingly, rumors about the Cyber Specter spread again in the local forums, adding an extra layer of mystery.

The whispers grew more exaggerated, with some saying it was a major manipulator behind the scenes of Aizu City, while others claimed it was an ancient deity reborn through the power of the internet, ready to bring about revolutionary change through technological power.

“The Cyber Specter is just a sporadic anomaly, with no repeatability,” declared a netizen.

“Bullshit!

It just appeared near Shenkong Tower,” retorted a street ronin, recalling the minor disturbance at the Synthetic Human Store, saying how they were having a good time before being chased away.

When Lu Jing learned that the riffraff had been chased away, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

“Reckless and threatening.

A monster against corporatism,” declared the Power Armored Soldiers.

That was more like it.

Lu Jing thought.

Isn’t our era in need of a monster against corporatism?

In her opinion, the monster wasn’t big or fierce enough.

If only it could blow up Kyoto Infinity in one go and bring some change to this suffocating situation.

Corporatism had reached a bottleneck in its development, and calls for change were coming from every corner.

The Cyber Specter was just one of them.

In Lu Jing’s view, the terrifying tide of revolution could break out at any moment.

Humans and Witches within the corporations’ territories had been oppressed to the brink, and it was only a matter of a spark to ignite this fury and blow the existing order sky-high.

By Shenkong Tower, Xu Yang saw a large group of Ratfolk lingering, guarding the perimeter.

For them, the Ratfolk’s struggle had reached a desperate position; surrounded by Humans, they stood on the external platform with a sort of tragic determination, holding crude weapons, the fire inside the building casting desperate shadows onto their faces.

However, above them lay their dream destination.

Shenkong Tower connected to Anjiu City up top.

If they could just climb higher, they would see the sunlight and the mythical blue skies and white clouds that were almost like a fairy tale to the Ratfolk.

If they could make it there, even the rats would consider their lives fulfilled.

Even just once in their lives, to see what the sun was like…

Two military Shuttle Machines hovered near the south gate of Shenkong Tower, bearing the label of Aizu City Civil Service Company.

“Why aren’t they attacking?

Just watching?” Farosa looked at the two Shuttle Machines, which were armed with many guns.

If they opened fire, the Ratfolk would be decimated, if not killed.

“It’s the characteristic corporate isolation,” Xu Yang explained, “Shenkong Tower isn’t within the realm of Civil Security of Aizu City.

The Tower has its own service, which has been taken over by the Ratfolk.”

“Bizarre.”

“It all comes down to money,” Xu Yang shook his head, “and if they act rashly and provoke a counterattack from the Rat Tide, these two big ships probably won’t fare too well either.”

“I like this feeling,” Farosa said, taking pleasure in watching Humans torment each other.

She knew Humans would ultimately fail.

To date, not a single ideal had been sufficient to unite all Humans, but Witches were different.

Promise them a return to the glory days of the Witch Era, and they would happily join without a second thought.

After all, who wouldn’t enjoy making Humans suffer comfortably?

“How many Giant Rat Beasts are inside the building?” Xu Yang communicated with Lila on Anonymous through an internal channel.

“There are 20 of the 10-Meter Giant Rats and 3 of the 25-Meter Giant Rats,” Lila replied.

“They’ve all been enhanced with both Magic Power and technology, surpassing the combat power of standard military Shuttle Machines.”

“We can’t rush in,” Farosa realized the threat, “but I still want to blast those rats to bits.”

“Don’t rush,” Xu Yang said, explaining, “First, let’s establish contact with Matteo and test the waters.

Those two security ships next to us make a good cover.

If Matteo comes out and fights with us, these two ships can’t just sit back and do nothing.”

Xu Yang passed the message to Matteo.

“I have brought you the Ancient Witch you wanted.”