Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 928 - 744: The Village Under Attack

Chapter 928: Chapter 744: The Village Under Attack

In Xu Yang’s eyes, the Shinobi Village was akin to a massive graveyard. It had lost its original vitality.

During his investigation into the true identity of Senzoune, he had studied the records about Shinobi Village. From the 147th to the 150th year of the Company Era, the numbers of newly recruited ninjas each year were 1755, 408, 132, and 40, respectively. Recruitment had been halted in the past two years because most ninjas had left the village, and even the mid-level ninjas who could train newcomers were no more.

He already knew there was no one in the village from his aerial view before. Now as he walked into the village, he could only see desolate buildings. A village without people had lost its reason to exist, which reminded Xu Yang of the town models created by Xu Cheng.

The desolate stone forts only served as symbolic barriers. The first thing they saw upon entering the village was bodies.

The remains of the ninjas were piled up, many of them dressed in ninja garb, wearing forehead protectors that signified their status, their deaths were tragic, like slaughtered livestock.

Tsuchigumo had a complex expression as she looked at the piles of bodies, her gaze laden with sorrow and regret.

"Are they ninjas from the village?" Xu Yang asked Tsuchigumo.

Tsuchigumo did not reply. She must have known these ninjas; they could have been Tsuchigumo’s friends and family, her mentors or fellow disciples. Now they were all killed here, lying in their own congealed and dried blood, gnawed on by mosquitoes and ants, like a pile of trash.

Xu Yang understood this feeling. Tsuchigumo was a social ninja witch with a very narrow circle of acquaintances, and the people she could hold a conversation with barely amounted to ten. Each person she knew was precious to her. Yet before she could redeem her reputation, they were all assassinated, leaving Tsuchigumo’s social relations nearly nullified.

Ninjas died with their eyes wide open, and as they walked past the bodies, it felt as though they were being watched by those cold, pale faces.

At that moment, a few more raindrops fell from the sky, and a gust of chilly wind swept by, bringing an unnaturally fearful chill, like a phantom brushing past.

The Quantum Warrior took strides forward, his armor rubbing together and producing a metallic sound as he moved through the silent, dark streets heavy with resentment. The Quantum Warrior possessed his own independent will. After being revived by the Nestor Corporation, he actually enjoyed a greater autonomy than when he was under Xisheng’s command.

He was like a sharp knife tasked with cutting through fog and illusions, with nothing but battle on his mind.

Tsuchigumo followed, familiar with the place. Her expression was indifferent, as if she’d made up her mind to have a decisive battle to the death with the rebel ninjas.

She stopped in front of a building in the village, pointing to the door, which boldly displayed the character for "medicine".

Xu Yang opened the door to take a look; an odd scent of medicine wafted from inside.

Inside lay a medical ninja who had been killed, with dyed pink hair, struck through the heart by a rebel ninja, her blood dried and turned black.

All the cabinets had been opened and the contents completely plundered, including the "Soldier’s Ration Pills," which were well-known and extremely useful among the ninja tools. They could quickly replenish strength, stamina, magic power, and even accelerate healing of injuries.

No matter how unfavorable the situation, simply by taking a Soldier’s Ration Pill one could swiftly recover; one could even fight for days on end without feeling fatigued. However, once the pill’s effects wore off, the consumer would fall into an extremely painful state, unable to move.

This must be the place where such forbidden drugs, like the Soldier’s Ration Pill, were made, Xu Yang thought as he looked around. The ninjas used their secret materials to concoct these medicines.

The Shinobi Village must have been attacked several days ago, Xu Yang mused. Inside the isolated ninja village, the remaining ninjas had been subjected to a massacre.

"Can the Ninja Master still send you messages while trapped in such a village? By courier?" Xu Yang turned to ask Tsuchigumo.

Tsuchigumo nodded.

"The situation is different from what I thought," she said coldly.

There were no survivors in Shinobi Village, and rebel ninjas patrolled around. Ninjas who had come to defend the village after receiving messages were also killed, their bodies piled at the entrance. Given the circumstances, it was a mystery how the Ninja Master Kamogawa managed to send out his letters.

Tsuchigumo looked up at the Heavenly Guardian Pavilion at the center of the village.

If the Ninja Master were still alive, the only place that could protect him would be that fortress-style building.

Xu Yang felt that at this moment, she was not merely trying to act cool, but was also reminiscing about the times she trained here.

Trials, honor, and hatred all accumulated in Tsuchigumo’s heart, fermenting within every ninja’s soul.

The brave young security guy named Nagase was the only one among the comrades who dared to keep up, mustering his courage to venture through the silent Shinobi Village, his hands tightly gripping his service pistol.

"The terrain here is very complex... Rebel ninjas could appear at any moment." Nagase looked around warily, beads of cold sweat on his forehead as he tried hard not to let his voice shake.

"Head to that Heavenly Guardian Pavilion," Xu Yang ordered the Quantum Warrior and Tsuchigumo.

"Yes," they complied with the order.

Surrounding the Heavenly Guardian Pavilion was a deep and unfathomable moat. The Quantum Warrior and Tsuchigumo leaped over the river, scaled the walls, and promptly entered through the multiple courtyards.

These courtyards with houses, plants, and trees were referred to as "Maru", with the area where the main Heavenly Guardian Pavilion stood being called Heavenly Guardian Maru. Around it were black tile walls and watchtowers known as "rooks," forming a tightly secured defensive pattern, solid as a rock.

Xu Yang observed exterior damage on the Heavenly Guardian Pavilion.

To this day, the Heavenly Guardian no longer held any defensive value and, lacking renovation funds, the ninjas had retained its original appearance. Tiles, walls, and eaves all showed various degrees of wear and tear. In the past, the ninjas must have clashed with external forces multiple times, with heavy casualties.

The Quantum Warrior arrived at the entrance of the Heavenly Guardian Pavilion, the gate looming like the mouth of a beast. He forcefully pushed open the main door of the smaller pavilion, immediately triggering a tripwire mine.

Boom!

The bomb detonated in front of him with a loud bang, causing Nagase to shudder, and he pointed his gun towards the main gate.

The figure of the Quantum Warrior still remained amidst the smoke, unshaken, unaffected by the bomb.

The gate collapsed upon contact, turning into a pile of wood chips and dust.

He tilted his body slightly, nodding to indicate he was unharmed, then he proceeded towards the depths of the Heavenly Guardian Pavilion, intending to ascend and thoroughly investigate the interior of the pavilion.

The Tsuchigumo silently followed, but it started its climb from the outside, its four spider legs scaling the outer structure of the pavilion, constantly approaching the top. They cooperated, investigating the inside and outside of the pavilion from both directions.

"We’ll just wait outside for the good news," said Xu Yang as he and Nagase didn’t enter the Heavenly Guardian Pavilion, instead taking a stroll through Shinobi Village.

"Sss..." Nagase glanced at Xu Yang, unable to help thinking that this middle-aged man must be middle to high management in Nestor Corporation, at least a department head or something of the sort, given his ability to command such powerful Samurai and a ruthless female Ninja.

Xu Yang and Nagase checked the bodies of other Ninjas killed in the village for videotaping and gathering clues, conducted preliminary examinations of the bodies, and marked them for retrieval.

Sounds of clashing swords and human screams continued to emanate from inside the Heavenly Guardian Pavilion, presumably the Quantum Warrior slaughtering the Rebel Ninjas.

Even from such a distance, one could imagine the bloody scene through the sounds, likely blood-soaked.

Xu Yang had confidence in the combat capability of the Quantum Warrior.

So far, the Quantum Warrior demonstrated formidable solo combat abilities. His Night Silver Armor was terrifyingly heavy, weighing a whopping 750 kilograms, depleting a significant amount of Nestor Corporation’s Night Silver stockpile. Combined with an individual-level Shield Stand Generator, very few things could breach the defense of the Quantum Warrior.

The brain of the Quantum Warrior had been preserved since the fourth Colosseum battle festival and had been turned into a living soldier specimen by Xisheng Company. To this day, it has accumulated combat experience so vast it’s terrifying, with an unmatched proficiency in the Martial Arts Path across the Archipelago Continent and a masterful level of combat skill.

If compared to the A40, Xu Yang didn’t want to be too disrespectful, please prepare a vanishing knife for the A40.

While examining bodies with Nagase, Xu Yang noticed that Nagase wore a badge marked "evaluation period" shaped like a ring with a QR code. Scanning it revealed a notice from Nestor Security Bureau indicating that this security staff lacked practical qualifications.

"New recruit?" Xu Yang asked.

"What? I’ve already been on the job for 6 months," Nagase replied honestly.

"The evaluation period is only about 4 weeks, right? Why are you still under evaluation?" Xu Yang, who personally drafted the regulations, was puzzled.

"It’s not something to be proud of," Nagase said helplessly, "I joined the Security Bureau because of an act of valor. I killed a habitual criminal in town who was robbing an old lady, blew him up with a shotgun, made him look like a burst melon. I ended up in the station, and the chief said to me—’You hit so hard, you might as well be a security officer, legally dealing with criminals.’ I agreed and got a uniform and a 10-times longer evaluation period. If I can make a stand in Shinobi Village, maybe I could end it early."

"How is life around here?" Xu Yang asked.

"Really cool. My math is terrible, so I thought I’d never get into a good company, but it turned out that I eventually joined Nestor Corporation, and I’ve made a fair amount of money over the last six months," Nagase exclaimed.

"There must also be some troubles, right?"

"The biggest hassle... We are simply not as resilient as Synthetic Human security personnel! Once we get into a serious firefight, we get injured and need at least a few weeks to recover. But robots can be fixed in a jiffy. Compared to that, human officers are like porcelain dolls, I even think about proposing that Synthetics completely replace humans, optimizing me out and saving the bureau some expense of keeping the deadwood," said Nagase jokingly as he complained to Xu Yang.

"You just mentioned your ’act of valor’, and that is where humans are superior to machines; humans have an infinite capacity for initiative, something that machines cannot achieve," said Xu Yang.

"Is... is that so..." Nagase felt a little proud after being praised by Xu Yang.

"You also mentioned gunfights; it sounds like the shootouts in the countryside are also quite fierce," Xu Yang commented.

"It’s all the power of business advertising. At first, it was just a bit of body modification, followed by loans for advanced implants, and now even the poorest villages have a lot of Modifiers. The biggest impression I have from this job is—I have to keep my gun steady. In the moment I hesitate, the suspect might shoot bullets from their palm or fire lasers from their eyes," Nagase said, his excitement growing.

Laws controlling guns and body implants have always been under discussion, but they are almost impossible to pass. Most people want to retain the right to bear arms and the freedom to modify themselves freely.

"It seems you don’t have any implants."

"It’s like virginity; once pierced by metal parts and wires, there’s no turning back. I still want to have a clean, strong body, but there’s such a big gap between being purely human and being strong..." Nagase looked at the dead Ninjas around him.

The Ninjas are examples of non-modifiers, yet here they lie, slaughtered across the village, utterly helpless in resistance—just like a bunch of weaklings.

"If you have the courage to accept surgery and endure the agonizing trials, you could check out our headquarters; Nestor Corporation is recruiting some to become part of the Advanced Legion," Xu Yang informed him.

"Advanced Legion?" Nagase heard this term and felt that he might have seen it in some department documents.

"The so-called Advanced Legion, like the Quantum Warrior you just saw, is made up of very formidable and terrifying soldiers. The Quantum Warrior’s brain comes from an experienced fighter, while his flesh is fully enhanced with bio-technology. If you can survive all the modification surgeries, you’ll possess immense power even with a Mortal body," Xu Yang explained as he looked up at the Heavenly Guardian Pavilion.

The project of the Advanced Legion, represented by the Quantum Warrior, is the pinnacle of Nestor Corporation’s biotechnology. Through genetic modification technology and organ enhancement surgery, even without implants, a human could obtain a body as strong as a fortress and a formidable strength, wear the heaviest Armor into battle, and annihilate everything. Xu Yang was quite optimistic about this project.

"Like that guy... Just go to the headquarters to sign up..." Nagase thought of the Quantum Warrior’s fearsome performance and couldn’t help feeling a surge of excitement.

By now, the Quantum Warrior had already reached the rooftop.