Cyber Era Witch-Chapter 39 - 27 The Head
39: Chapter 27 The Head
39 -27 The Head
Giant Tower Project?
We live within a massive tower.
“Fake,” Xu Yang said subconsciously, “The language we know has always been like this, we’ve been using the same language for a very long time.”
“Is that possible?
In this vast world, could everyone really speak the same language?” Cui Junyou said.
“Then how can you prove it,” Xu Yang shook his head, “you say we carry special implants; you are a professional prosthesis doctor, why haven’t you ever detected such things in your patients?”
“Because of the corporation’s conspiracy,” Cui Junyou ground his teeth, “they’ve hidden the most crucial things, right in our blind spots.
If we’re so foolish as to deny such things, wouldn’t that be too stupid!”
“This…”
“Actually, what you just mentioned is possible,” Farosa said.
“Hmm?” Xu Yang never expected Farosa to offer her view on such modern conspiracy theories.
How could an ancient witch have a new perspective on the conspiracy theories of the new age?
“It’s strange,” Farosa said, “maybe because the myths were interrupted, you’ve come to entertain such ideas.
A long time ago, people wouldn’t have this confusion because everyone knew the Giant Tower truly existed.”
“You mean…”
“The existence of God,” Farosa said, “everyone was aware of God’s Giant Tower.
In ancient times, humans indeed were divided and spoke different dialects in many different tribes.
Therefore, God selected his favorite tribes, chose their languages, mixed them together, unified the language, then sent messengers, so-called God’s messengers, which are witches.
God’s blessing enhanced their magic power, and they bestowed it upon everyone, so people could speak the same language, use the same script.”
No wonder Farosa, a person from a millennium ago, could communicate with us effortlessly upon waking up.
“What was the purpose of that?” Xu Yang asked.
“To build the Giant Tower,” Farosa said, “God wanted people to unite and erect a high tower on the earth, so that they could reach the skies via the tower at any time to see God himself.
So, this thing that drives you all nuts is actually the result of Divine Power.”
“Nonsense,” Cui Junyou said, “there’s no such thing as ‘God’!
Then where is this Giant Tower you speak of?”
“Strange,” Nidelaide said, “with all those rats out there, it’s astonishing that you’re still discussing this.”
“I don’t want to waste any more time on this,” Xu Yang ended the endless argument, and got ready to leave.
Survival comes first!
He scanned the surroundings with his Digital Mind, but to his surprise, he detected a signal source trying to communicate with him.
Hmm?
Who would be sending me a message at a time like this?
Xu Yang filtered the information sent from the other party.
It was very brief, just two words.
“Help me”
The source of the signal was very close; Xu Yang could tell it was only a few steps away, inside this cramped chamber, someone was desperately calling for his help!
Who could it be?
Such a bizarre incident made him feel uneasy.
He had to find out.
Xu Yang observed everyone’s expressions—Cui Junyou was angry, Kanako was clueless, Farosa was calm, and though Nidelaide’s face was not clear, she did not seem like she was calling for help.
Moreover, Nidelaide was waving at Xu Yang, wearing thick gloves even under his sleeves.
“This is a triaxial bisial inhibitor,” Nidelaide gave Xu Yang a packet of the oral solution, “It can help with implant disorder symptoms and prevent worsening.”
“Thanks,” Xu Yang accepted the oral solution; it had intact packaging and a production date.
The giver was genuinely trying to help, which made him take a second look.
“What a kind person,” Kanako said happily.
“To be fair, it’s not that much,” Nidelaide said, “Xu has a lot of money, even without me, he could find many ways to take care of himself.”
Having confirmed that none of the people present had sent the distress signal, Xu Yang asked them to go ahead, while he lingered in the prosthetics shop for a while.
This feeling was terrifying—could there truly be Cyber Ghosts that send messages?
Due to a malfunction, Xu Yang knew only that the signal source was extremely close but couldn’t pinpoint the location.
Xu Yang tracked the sender of the message, analyzing its identification code.
It got weirder.
He had never seen such a string of code before.
Xu Yang had spent many years as an engineer; every electric grid, trap, turret, mine, door, camera, home appliance, and vehicle had their own coding style, always traceable.
But now, this device he was tracking had identification information like an indecipherable text, completely without pattern or logic.
“Old Cui,” Xu Yang roamed around the Prosthetics Clinic, asking him, “do you have anything here that could send messages on its own?”
“What kind of thing, I don’t know,” Cui Junyou packed up the last of his valuable items into a box and then slung it over his shoulder, “I’m leaving, you better go too.”
“…
I’ll keep looking.”
Xu Yang kept searching for the extremely mysterious phantom signal.
If someone was calling out for my help and I simply walked away, wouldn’t that be abandoning them in a dangerous situation?
He walked around the clinic several times, constantly searching for the source of the signal until he finally stopped in front of a dirty shelf in the very corner of the clinic.
The signal definitely was coming from here.
Discarded implants, eyeballs, male prosthetics…
Xu Yang felt around on the shelf and eventually touched something soft and silky.
Hair.
Xu Yang’s hand reached lower, his eyes, nose…
He froze.
A woman’s severed head.
Only the left side of the face was human flesh, covered in dust, while the right side was a damaged metallic visage; likewise, the left eye was a real eyeball, and the right eye a round camera.
This ugly metal face squeezed out a sorrowful smile at Xu Yang, emitting a weak electronic sound like a mosquito’s buzz.
“…Save…
me…”
Living in modern times required a strong heart; there were always things beyond one’s comprehension waiting.
“Old Cui?” Xu Yang managed to steady himself, calling out softly.
“Coming.” Cui Junyou’s response was indifferent and lazy.
Xu Yang heard the dragging sound of his slow footsteps and hoped he would move faster.
This was… too strange.
Xu Yang held his breath and observed the half-metal head in front of him closely.
It must have been abandoned in a corner for a very long time, the surface covered in dust, but the muscular part of the face had not rotted or attracted maggots, probably not a real human face but a synthetic realistic-looking skin layer instead.
Xu Yang looked down, searching for where the head met the neck, but it was too dark to see either a spine or wires.
The sad-looking head could no longer make a sound.
Perhaps that earlier movement had drained all its power, or was it strength?
Xu Yang could not tell.
Cui Junyou kept walking, reaching the same row of shelves as Xu Yang, squeezing in sideways, trying his best to avoid knocking over miscellaneous items.
“What did you find?
This place is full of stuff I find useless,” he said.
“This.” Xu Yang pointed at the head in front of him.
Cui Junyou took out his phone, shining its light on it, which allowed Xu Yang to see her features more clearly.
She seemed to be a blonde from the North, judging from the remaining half of the human face, quite beautiful; now only her head remained.
“Oh, one of the rare parts I collected,” Cui Junyou said.
“Cost me a good amount of money.
I was planning to dismantle it to see how it worked, but I never got round to it.”
“Parts?
She is clearly alive!”
“Alive, dead, these days there’s too much that’s half alive, half dead; who can clarify it all?
They are all corporate conspiracies behind this!”
“Set the company stuff aside for now; tell me about ‘it’ first.”
“Alright, it was from the ‘Convenience Buy’ platform where it was up for auction, I was doing well in business, five years ago,” Cui Junyou recalled.
Convenience Buy is a very famous online shopping platform which has been slightly declining in recent years.
“Keep going.”
“I spent about 1.5 million to buy it, an obsolete Combat Witch.”
“A modified witch?”
“Yes, fully converted to cybernetics, served many years, and then was scrapped.
They sold her body parts separately; there were the head, chest, waist, hands, feet, legs, etc., all sold separately.
I originally thought the head would be the most valuable, but it turned out the chest and pelvis were worth more.
I didn’t think those parts were useful, so I didn’t buy them.
The head wasn’t expensive, you see, the face is already all synthetic, and half of it is metal, ugly as sin, no collectible value, no one else bid, I got it after two rounds.”
Xu Yang silently lifted up the witch’s head.
Her expression did not change, as if the earlier plea for help had been an illusion.
It must have been her sending me the distress signal from the dark shelves.
Was this her first time asking for help, or had there been countless cries ignored before?
Just hearing about the broken witch’s past evoked deep sympathy in Xu Yang.
First, repeatedly modified, then disassembled and sold, ending up in the depths of a Prosthetics Clinic in Aizu City, enduring five years unnoticed before using her last bit of energy to send out a plea for help to me…
What a hardship for her!
I can’t ignore such a desperate will to live.
“She’s still alive,” Xu Yang said.
“She’s seeking my help.”
“Saihachi, that’s damn spooky,” Cui Junyou exclaimed.
“You want to maintain this dead head?”
“I’ll give you 2 million, sell it to me.”
“No need for your money, you’ve already given me too much,” Cui Junyou scrutinized the witch’s head.
“Since you’ve taken over the Toshiaki Robot Megastore, maybe you can extract her cognitive chip and install it in a robot.”
“Perhaps it’s possible,” Xu Yang started to analyze along with him.
“If she underwent enough cybernetic modifications, her chip should be able to adapt to a robot’s intelligence control module; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to control her original mechanical body.”
If we could resurrect this mechanical witch, maybe she could help us out.
If what Cui Junyou said is true, being that she was once a battle-hardened Combat Witch, she should have excellent combat skills and experience.
If we could successfully bring a witch like that back to life and recruit her, everything we do afterward would be so much easier.
Carrying the witch’s head out, Xu Yang looked up and saw Farosa, and the weight of the head seemed to have become much heavier.
“What is that?” Farosa’s face changed abruptly.
“A zombie?”
“In a sense, it’s also a witch, your kin,” Xu Yang whispered.
“She needs our help.”
“No, that thing also deserves to be called a witch?” Farosa scoffed.
“I hereby decree her expulsion from the witch ranks.”
Xu Yang did not know how to explain for a moment.
One, a mechanically modified witch with nothing left but a head, and the other, a “pure” witch from a thousand years ago, firmly believing witches to be superior.
Can I find a way to make Farosa understand all of this before her?
