Cyber Era Witch-Chapter 74 - 57 In the Tower

74: Chapter 57 “In the Tower

74 -57 “In the Tower

The earthquakes were relentless.

Located at the juncture of tectonic plates, the Archipelago Continent was prone to frequent quakes.

Having grown up here, Asa Katsuragi had seen too many people die because of this.

Now as the earth shook and the mountains trembled, her concern for her companions intensified.

She immediately rushed out of her room, knocking on doors one by one to check on everyone’s well-being and to see if anyone needed help.

No matter what others thought, Asa Katsuragi had come to regard everyone who rode the shuttle machine together as important companions, and she didn’t want to see any of them get hurt.

Everyone else was doing okay, but Nidelaide was particularly uncomfortable with Asa Katsuragi’s concern.

“Are you alright?” Asa Katsuragi shouted outside Nidelaide’s door.

Maybe the rats are here.

Nidelaide looked out the window.

Damn it, just when he’d found a cozy place to concentrate on watching anime, these annoying disruptions kept occurring.

When would the time come when everyone could live without stress and enjoy life freely?

Perhaps it was a fantasy; we were born to suffer.

The greatest advantage of wearing a mask was being able to hide one’s facial expressions.

Nidelaide opened the door, and although there was a look of embarrassment and weariness under his mask, Asa Katsuragi couldn’t tell at all; instead, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Be careful,” she said quickly.

“We need to get away from the buildings.”

“Got it,” Nidelaide muttered, while his eye implants were already connected to the wireless transmission, streaming anime from his phone.

He intended to keep up with the latest episodes while fleeing.

The implants were incredibly convenient, and thankfully, he had cached a large number of episodes while he still had internet access.

How could anyone living in Kyoto Infinity not watch the monthly new anime?

Nidelaide provided content for the deep anonymous web’s anime review sections in his spare time.

He’d watched countless series, and his insights were revered by anime fans worldwide.

When there was nothing to do at the prosthetics clinic, he would binge-watch shows, completing an entire series at once, regardless of its quality.

Masterpieces needed to be watched, and so did duds; that was the only way to be well-rounded.

Regrettably, the world would never be as happy as depicted in anime, nor would there ever be a perpetually lucky protagonist.

If there were, it certainly wasn’t me.

Xu Yang seemed a bit like a “protagonist,” but if he was the protagonist, what did that make me?

A supporting character with a fixed amount of screen time?

Then my purity is too low.

Could I at least rank in the top ten on the ending song’s voice actor list?

Nidelaide wondered to himself.

“Whew, that was scary,” Cui Junyou exclaimed with a bottle of foreign liquor in hand, which he had found on the nightstand in his room.

He was particularly greedy in this aspect, not exactly poor, but he couldn’t resist a bargain.

Since it was Jumen Commerce’s property anyway, he felt no guilt in taking it.

“We need to go,” Li Xiaomin said urgently.

“What about our senior?”

At that, Rosya turned to look at Lila, who was standing vigil outside Xu Yang’s door.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Xu Yang turned back to close it with a solemn expression.

Rosya suspected Farosa was inside the room, as she had distinctly heard a certain sound earlier, indicative of some release and indulgence.

Rosya had a penchant for gossip and secrets, especially scrutinizing romantic entanglements.

She had no doubt that Xu Yang and Farosa maintained close contact, but Lila was extremely loyal to Xu Yang and even exhibited a fondness for him through her actions.

Compared to the unpredictable and enigmatic Farosa, she much preferred to be closer to Lila.

In this regard, Rosya resented Xu Yang.

From her perspective, Lila gave Xu Yang boundless loyalty, but he had not shown Lila much care in return, indulging in the Witch’s embrace instead.

Men always favored youth and beauty, and the Witch maintained this well, even through several generations.

She couldn’t help but think of Kirino Reisei from Kyoto Infinity’s upper echelons, known as the “Sakura Witch” who, as the incumbent company president’s attendant in bed, had used biotechnology and magic power to maintain her youthful appearance for over a century.

She had been doing this work since the end of the Witch War, serving seven presidents, and had continuously directed the company’s operations from her place on the bed.

Kyoto Infinity treated each presidential succession as a festival, sending the witch and the president into the traditional shrine.

The witch could not bear children, and with her stunning beauty, could provide help with her magic power.

By comparison, ordinary women were at a great disadvantage, and powerful men preferred witches as partners, without the need to worry about rebellious children or the division of estates.

Childbearing was left to corporate people.

Xu Yang made sure his clothes were in order, although the enjoyment had been brief, it left a deep impression.

Farosa’s body was memorable, and having the chance to be intimate with her was a great fortune, leaving him head over heels.

If he could build a villa by the warm seaside and stroll on the beach with his beloved, then life would be without regret.

However, to strive for this hard-won happiness, he still needed to fight for some time to come.

He must kill his way out of the Ratman encirclement.

Because of the repeated earthquakes, the situations of power and internet outages were getting worse, continuous discussions could be heard from all directions.

“Wow ah…”

“Is the power out?”

“Again?” The voice came from several rooms downstairs, especially from the previous office area, where the noise was particularly noticeable.

Problems caused by the Rat people made normal business operations difficult to sustain.

Corporate people were particularly anxious and irritable.

Without the internet, they couldn’t complete the day’s tasks.

Underachievement for the day was like a grievous sin, and the looming fines made them want to cry without tears.

They might not perich in the Rat Tide, but they would certainly die from absence.

The difference between the propertied and corporate people lay in that the propertied could continuously gain earnings through their assets, while the corporate people’s only place to stand was their narrow workspaces.

To strive for the next day’s food, they had to keep working tirelessly, burning themselves out for the development of Jumen Commerce.

The current situation caused them doubled pain; their hysteria and unease could be heard through the floors.

Corporate people longed to work, and the earthquakes destroyed everything.

They could go without eating, drinking, sleeping, or resting, but not without a day’s work.

Immediately after, Xu Yang heard someone downstairs begin to cry loudly.

To them, dying in the Rat Tide was a comparatively straightforward end.

Desperation, like living in a massive stone coffin, no way out in sight.

This once was my experience, Xu Yang thought, unavoidably feeling empathy.

“Go find the Shuttle Machine,” Xu Yang quickly moved, hurrying downstairs.

If surrounded by the Rat people inside the company, it would be over.

Coming here was just to rest; they still had to keep moving, looking for a more suitable place.

Lila always followed Xu Yang’s orders, but now she did not.

Instead, taking the opportunity of Xu Yang’s descent, she slipped into the room.

Farosa was still lazily reclining on the bed; her body reminded Lila of the ancient Taixi Continent classical paintings secretly stored by the company.

Back then, witches commanded painters to use pigments to capture their unclothed forms and then gouged out their eyes, to prevent them from painting a second picture from memory.

Too bad, Farosa, the current me won’t lose to you.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Farosa scoffed, “There’s constant crisis outside; not the time to argue with me.”

“I have only one thing to say,” Lila spoke calmly, “This world is vastly different from the one you know.

Stop using your old methods.”

“But they have been very successful so far.”

“That’s just what you think,” she retorted.

“Such a loser’s statement,” Farosa threw off the covers to show her, “Can this move?

Things that don’t wobble should just shut up.”

Lila remained silent.

Monsters will always be monsters, a thousand years of slumber won’t change that.

She was utterly disappointed in Farosa.

Especially the thought of having to travel with this physically beautiful but morally repugnant monster made her inevitably generate a segment of code named ‘dejection’ in her chip.

Watching Lila’s retreating figure, Farosa bit her lip.

Yes, it’s the same again.

Hatred, misunderstanding, rejection.

That’s the first thing people do when they get to know me—they distance themselves, from me, from a madwoman.

They would never seek to understand me further, never willing to listen to my true thoughts, nor tolerate my actions and behavior; they just know I’m insane.

But if they would talk to me patiently, wouldn’t I repay them with sincerity and kindness?

What should I do…

As the earthquakes intensified, all the lights went out in an instant.

Deep underground, a thundering sound resonated, decorations on the walls swayed, and many objects rolled onto the ground.

Farosa got up to leave and joined the team.

Xu Yang had already gone downstairs, retreating towards the garage, preparing to get on the shuttle machine for evacuation.

Near the huge blue floor-to-ceiling window, he stared intently at the distant streets, where all lights were out—just like the scene at Number 26 Highland and Katagi District—only the searchlights of large combat robots remained bright.

Boom—Boom—

The roads cracked inch by inch, gigantic claws broke through the ground, huge rat heads surfaced with eyes shining a hateful red as they loathed the lights and buildings of Hui City District.

The behemoths paved the way, and countless Ratmen crawled out beside them, howling as they rushed towards the nearest citizens, wielding weapons to take them down.

Precise, lethal, orderly.

“This is the result of their day’s preparation,” Xu Yang felt a twinge of nervousness, “…

this is their all-out assault.”

“Senior, what should we do?” Li Xiaomin gasped, panic-stricken.

“Hurry,” Xu Yang sprinted down with them, and looking back to see Farosa lagging behind leisurely, he couldn’t help but urge her to hurry up.

“Don’t rush me,” Farosa appeared unconcerned.

She had regained a substantial amount of magic power in her high excitement.

Now she could release both types of power multiple times, having recovered about one-fifth of her strength, her combat power was already considerable, and she didn’t think the mere rats could affect her.

But she was still moving too slowly.

“Are you okay?

Should I carry you?” Asa Katsuragi looked back, thinking Farosa might be unwell.

Fool, who needs your concern?

Farosa almost cursed out loud.

But she suddenly swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue because if she said such things, like Lila, Katsuragi would also reject and turn away from her, and that was just too annoying.

The people around her, who initially held neutral or friendly attitudes toward her, later one by one left, hated, and despised…

Was this not what happened a thousand years ago?

Torn between the pain of “having few friends” and consoling herself with “I don’t need friends,” Farosa tormented herself in excruciating pain.

Kill them all, find a new batch of friends.

Just like Pan Ruiyi said, they are merely a rabble.

Yet, seeing Xu Yang’s tired appearance, she softened again and managed to suppress the raging anger.

If I kill everyone, Xu Yang will leave me too.

Farosa clenched her fists, her nails digging into her flesh.

In the end, she quickened her pace, changing from her previous sluggish demeanor.

She really ran fast, like an athletic champion.

Despite the ongoing earthquake, she reached the front of the team in seconds, crossing two or three steps in a single bound, perfectly maintaining her balance.

So Nidelaide, who hurried to shut off the anime scenes in his eyes, sped up and wound up in the rear.

Ah, Xu Yang, Farosa looked back at Xu Yang.

I have sacrificed so much for you, what will you do in return?

Can you understand my suppression?

But how could this obtuse man ever care for me?

He’s just after his own pleasure.

Xu Yang, sensing Farosa’s uneasy gaze, thought she was afraid of the rats in the underground garage and quickly took her hand.

“It’s alright,” he said quickly.

Farosa felt dizzy.

Deep inside, she experienced an unprecedented sense of happiness.