Millennium Witch

The welding torch thought for a moment and said, "I remember it was about a super bomb that could be sent to the Earth's core and destroy the world, thus threatening the government forces to cease hostilities. There were also other doomsday weapons mentioned. Anyway, in terms of the idea, I think at least the idea of ​​mutual destruction is quite reasonable."

I thought it was a mutation virus... Yvette shook her head inwardly, but still kept the incident in mind.

Hmm, while I'm still dreaming, maybe I should consider looking for information on the Silent War...

Chapter 21 Moving

Before leaving, Yvette didn't forget to place an order with Welding Torch for two clean and hygienic new ID cards. This required connections within the police department, but Welding Torch, as one of the local bigwigs, had no trouble doing it—essentially, the police department was selling them themselves, and he was just the middleman.

Actually, through her conversation with the welding torch, Yvette had a vague feeling that she didn't need to buy an ID card. Unless the three thugs' friends and family showered the police station with bribes, the officers here, given their lack of professionalism, wouldn't take the case seriously. They'd just give it a perfunctory oversight and wouldn't even notice that the police system had been hacked and residents' information had been altered.

Besides, the number of unsolved cases in the Blackwater District every year is countless. Apart from the hot-blooded rookies who have just joined the force and been assigned here, the normal police officers have long since become seasoned veterans, so why would they mind having one more?

However, Yvette had only been there for two days and lacked understanding of the Blackwater District, Ish City, and even the entire Origin Civilization. Mere theoretical knowledge was insufficient. Therefore, out of caution, she paid for two ID cards, totaling 1.6, causing her account balance to drop to 6.98.

……

After leaving the junkyard and black market, Yvette took Rosalind for a stroll around the city center in the evening. They walked through the city park, which had been transformed into a manor after the apocalypse, had a high-end dinner, and even went up to the observation dome on the top floor of the Black Tower to take in the neon-lit night view of Ish City, with endless streams of magical light filling their eyes.

At this moment, looking at this beautiful scenery, Rosalyn basically regarded it as a true reflection of the land-based divine kingdom, and placed all sorts of wonderful fantasies in it.

Although Yvette knew that utopias didn't exist and that the Origin Civilization was a society with a huge gap between rich and poor, she was still captivated by the scenery and momentarily lost in thought, recalling a past life when she and her family bought tickets to the top of the Shanghai Tower. Back then, she was young and full of youthful vigor, never imagining that she would end up delivering food after graduation…

Fortunately, she struck it lucky and has now become a witch. I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse.

The following morning, through an intermediary platform, Yvette abandoned the hotel and instead rented an apartment of about 80 square meters in the Wright Apartments on Acid Street.

This is an apartment building next to a relatively prosperous commercial area in the Blackwater District. The location is good and the security is relatively reliable. It's not like Pixel Street, where you might wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and be so scared by a gunshot that you pee your pants—of course, she doesn't go to the bathroom or pee her pants; this is a scientific hypothesis based on past experience.

Standing at the entrance of the apartment and looking up, the entire Wright Apartments is a huge bright yellow honeycomb structure. The upper part is much thicker, with magical vehicles constantly taking off and landing on the rooftop platform, making it extremely busy. The lower part looks narrower and more conservative, with no balconies in the rooms, wire mesh installed on the windows, and only one driveway.

Soon, Yvette led Rosalyn into the elevator and pressed the button for the 18th floor. This was a VIP elevator reserved for tenants on the 15th floor and above; these rooms were more expensive and offered better services.

"Hello, are you new here?"

Upon arriving at the door of the rented room 1809, Yvette opened the door and saw a middle-aged man in a white coat coming out of the next room. He looked like he was about to leave and greeted the two of them in surprise.

“Yes, I just arrived today.” Yvette nodded slightly.

“My name is Regel Hoffman. From now on, we’re neighbors.” Regel smiled and suddenly pulled a piece of paper from his clothes and handed it over. “This is my business card. Feel free to ask me for help anytime.”

Yvette took the business card and glanced at it: "Hoffman General Practice Clinic... You're a doctor?"

"Yes, but the price is very cheap, don't worry, many of the tenants on the fifteenth floor are my regular customers."

Regel glanced at his watch, waved, and said, "Time's running out, I have to go now. Have a pleasant stay!"

After he walked away, Yvette entered the room, and the door closed automatically.

At this moment, Rosalyn had already entered the room and was fiddling with a holographic display disguised as a fish tank.

However, her enthusiasm came and went quickly. Before long, Yvette saw that she gradually lost interest in exploring the apartment rooms and instead lay down on the living room sofa, skillfully scrolling through short videos using the holographic projection function of the magic terminal, like a salted fish that had lost its fighting spirit.

"..."

Shaking her head, Yvette casually found a stool to sit down and started surfing the internet, but not for entertainment; instead, she was researching information about the Silent War.

There is a wealth of information online about the War of Silence, a war that once swept the globe, and it is not difficult to find.

According to confirmed information from online encyclopedias, this war came quite suddenly, without any prior preparation. The government struck first, and by the time the companies realized something was wrong, it was too late. Therefore, from the very beginning, the companies were at a disadvantage.

However, Yvette noticed that in the early stages of the war, only three companies were involved: Lingman Company, Sky Dome Technology, and Black Tower Pharmaceuticals.

The attacking forces are the "United States of New Eden" and the "Future Federation." These are the two nations with the strongest overall capabilities of the origin civilization, and also the regional powers of Black Tide Continent and Silver Mirror Continent, respectively.

First, policy suppression was used, then regulatory intervention led to minor armed skirmishes. Then other forces joined in, igniting the conflict completely, and finally it escalated into a large-scale hot war between the "corporate alliance" and "global international"... This makes perfect sense.

Moreover, curbing the expansion of mega-corporations is not a strange decision in itself; at most, the methods were a bit too drastic, and the companies' resistance was also a bit too fierce...

She thought to herself.

As for the outcome of the war, just as the welding torch said, both sides abruptly ended the war on the grounds that they "did not want to cause more casualties," and both remained silent, not revealing any further information to the outside world—this is also the origin of the term "silent war."

After sifting through countless online discussions and speculations all day, by evening, Yvette sat wearily on the living room sofa, rubbing her temples, having come up empty-handed. In truth, even if there were any plausible clues, they were completely lost amidst so many conspiracy theories and articles.

So she thought about it and decided to change her approach, abandoning the investigation of the Silent War and instead looking for apocalyptic-related tags.

This narrowed down the search scope considerably. After browsing various forums and using various AI search engines, she finally found a post that caught her attention.

—A user with the ID "The Fire Bearer" claimed that the end of the world was coming, so he created a shelter. The purpose of the post was to encourage everyone to collect and contribute their important knowledge and upload it to the server as a spark to restart human civilization.

On Earth, this would definitely be fake, similar to those posts about "getting a license plate number without paying." But in the Origin Civilization, considering the almost absurd level of intellectual property protection, the poster's words actually seem quite sincere.

Surely no one would risk going to jail just to post something irrelevant...

Thinking of this, Yvette looked at the suspicious link attached to the post, clicked on it, and as expected, a risk warning appeared.

She skillfully clicked "Ignore the risks and continue accessing," and this time, a small website with a dark background appeared before her eyes. In the center was an animated image of a burning candle, and below was an upload module that allowed her to upload files up to a certain size to the server.

In the upper left corner of the website is a logo shaped like a burning candle, next to which is written what appears to be the name of the organization.

The Society for the Preservation of Civilization.

Chapter 22 Medical Commission

"The Civilization Survival Association..."

Muttering the name to herself, Yvette thought for a moment and decided to hack into it immediately. Partly, she wanted to see if the "Civilization Survival Association" was genuine or a scam; partly, she was also figuring out that the website's servers probably had a lot of data collected, which might be useful for making free purchases.

But unexpectedly, the hack was prevented from happening for a short time.

Unlike the outdated, static rule-based firewall of the Blackwater Police Department, this website uses dynamic defense and has very few vulnerabilities that can be continuously exploited. Sometimes, even if you manage to hack in, your credentials will be revoked in less than a second if an abnormal access path appears.

This gave Yvette the feeling of engaging in a rapid offensive and defensive battle, and that her opponent was extremely strong, with a "breathing" quality, not so much like an AI, but more like a top-tier rune hacker.

After a moment's thought, Yvette decisively abandoned the attempt. Normal system hacking is like playing chess against a dead person, but this time it felt like a living person was sitting on the other side of the chessboard—that was a completely different story. Although she used VPNs, fake addresses, and traffic obfuscation as disguises, there was no guarantee she wouldn't be caught red-handed.

She didn't want to be called out through the internet.

……

Putting aside the mysterious "Civilization Survival Society," whose origins were unclear but which possessed top-notch anti-hacking capabilities, Yvette lived a relatively peaceful and tranquil life for the next month or so in order not to alert them.

As for the welding torches, the sales of Arcane Wind Blades met expectations. Apart from one package for personal use, the remaining four packages were all sold out, purchased by the same local gang leader.

Selling the remaining four copies means receiving 20, which brings Yvette much closer to getting her copy of "Elemental Decay Completion Techniques" for 50.

However, since she had nothing to do and was also preparing for certain fields in the future, Yvette added her neighbor Reiger Hoffman's work number that morning, using the contact information left on his business card.

"Good morning, Mr. Hoffman."

"Good morning, oh, Miss Theon, is there something you need?" Regel asked in surprise when he saw Yvette on the holographic screen.

Having moved in a month ago, Reger, his wife Susan, their eldest son Hans, and their youngest daughter Mary have become quite familiar with their "cousin" neighbors, Yvette and Rosalyn. They greet each other warmly when they occasionally pass by in the hallway or meet on the street downstairs.

Rosalyn, Hans, and Mary are already quite familiar with each other and are good friends, as they share similar ages and interests.

Although Yvette, her cousin, didn't look very old, she was surprisingly mature in her way of handling things, not at all like a child. So when they chatted occasionally, Regel and Susan would unconsciously treat this silver-haired girl as someone their own age.

“Well, Mr. Hoffman, I’ve recently had some free time and have been reading some books about ‘potions,’ which has sparked my interest in medicine. I would like to ask if you could offer me some guidance, or allow me to observe and learn from some treatment procedures,” Yvette said. “Of course, I will pay a reasonable fee for this.”

Besides rune compilation, rune medicine is Yvette's second most abundant resource, since the Abyss Base has the most professional books on rune medicine, many of which are even internal secrets of the Black Tower.

She only looked at it, but didn't learn it seriously, since she didn't need it when she got out of trouble.

Although she still prioritizes magical machinery and energy reserves in her research, she can take some time to digest the rune medicine knowledge she hastily devoured in her spare time, since she will need it sooner or later anyway.

“This…” Regel clearly hadn’t expected this, and he hesitated. “I’m sorry, Miss Theon, it’s not that I don’t want to teach you, but I don’t have a teaching certificate, and even if I did, it would have to be done at a professional educational institution…”

"Just let me watch from the sidelines, and I'll pay 2 credits a month. What do you think?"

"Twenty thousand..."

Regel swallowed hard. He was actually practicing medicine without a license, a fact well known to the residents of Wright Apartments and the regular customers near Acid Street. As a result, his fees were exceptionally low. Among doctors of the same caliber, others earned around 70,000 a month, a full middle-class income, while his income was less than 20,000.

Just by letting this little girl observe the process, her monthly income can more than double!

Even with the risk of illegally disseminating knowledge, it is absolutely worth the risk!

Besides, he didn't even have a medical license to begin with, so he didn't have to worry about his debts, and his patients would keep it a secret from him...

He made a self-deprecating remark, then said, "Alright, Miss Theon, I'll send you a message every time I make a house call or when a patient comes to my door. Is that alright?"

“Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Hoffman,” Yvette nodded.

……

In the afternoon, Hoffman's clinic welcomed a customer who seemed to be suffering from tinnitus and came to see a doctor for treatment and medication.

Yvette immediately went to the small clinic in the Hoffman family home next door. While observing, she received a warm welcome from Mrs. Susan. Although she was there to learn, the small table next to her was full of snacks, making it seem as if she was there to enjoy herself.

However, Yvette understood Mrs. Susan's mindset; she probably treated her like a major benefactor.

She remembered that their children, Hans and Mary, were both attending Black Tower High School, a top-tier elite school. The tuition there was 30 credits a year. Even though Regel worked hard every day and Mrs. Susan worked part-time, they still had to shoulder the burden of high student loans and even more terrifying interest, and their quality of life was not as good as that of the lower-class residents in Blackwater who earned four or five thousand a month.

Therefore, it is undeniable that this understanding is one of the reasons why Regel was suddenly given such a learning assignment.

After observing the treatment process for a while, Yvette saw Rosalyn walk straight in from the door. After a polite greeting, she didn't disturb Regel's work and instead asked, "Teacher, Aunt Susan, are Hans and Mary here?"

"They both went out this morning. Do you want to go play with them?" Susan asked kindly.

"Yes." Rosalyn smiled sweetly.

From the day she transmigrated, this is the first time she has made friends who can be her playmates. They get along very well, and since she has nothing to do these days, she feels like she's on summer vacation. She goes out with Hans and Marie whenever she has free time and has a great time every day.

"Wait, let me take a look..." Susan opened the magic terminal and activated a subscription-based family safety service, which would allow parents to know their child's real-time location and quickly call the police in case of danger.

After watching for a while, she said in surprise, "They seem to be on Scrap Iron Avenue... about five kilometers from here. What are they doing there?" She paused, then added angrily, "They won't answer the phone! Those two kids!"

Scrap Iron Avenue is an old neighborhood, and its safety level is actually quite good. The street is lined with shops, so the probability of an accident is not high. Besides, the alarm didn't go off, and hanging up the phone unilaterally is a basic action for a rebellious teenager. But as a mother, a look of worry quickly appeared on Mrs. Susan's face.

She muttered to herself, "Could we be in danger?"

“Aunt Susan, don’t worry, everything will be alright. I’ll come and check on you right now,” Rosalyn said. After exchanging a glance with Yvette, she immediately went downstairs and hailed a taxi to Scrap Iron Avenue.

Chapter 23 Arrangement

The twilight cast a metallic sheen of rust, and the distant sea bathed the setting sun in a golden hue. Rosalyn's little boots had barely touched the cracked pavement when the taxi lifted off the ground behind her, startling several seabirds pecking at trash.

Her gaze then fell upon the junkyard next to the town, where abandoned magical equipment was piled up like a mountain range, resembling a huge mechanical graveyard.

According to the town's residents, many years ago this area was one of the most prosperous areas on Ish Island and its only port.

However, with the development of the new port in the Tower District and the neighboring Grey Harbor City, the port in the Blackwater District gradually declined and was finally abandoned completely during the Silent War 20 years ago.

Since it wasn't her first time here, Rosalyn lifted her skirt and skillfully navigated through the mountains of metal junk, quickly finding a clearing hidden among the "mountains".

Hans and Marie were there, as expected, sitting on a metal plate nearby, seemingly waiting for something.

"Hi, you two, good afternoon!"

"Hey, Rosalyn, what brings you here?" Hans looked over in surprise.

“It must be because you just hung up on Mom. Mom has a location tracking system,” Mary said from the side.

Like Rosalyn, Hans and Marie were 12 and 11 years old respectively, both typical junior high school students. Hans was a boy with medium-length brown hair who looked somewhat refined, while Marie was a girl with red curly hair who wore round glasses. Although she wasn't as pretty as Rosalyn, she still had an excellent demeanor.

"Aunt Susan was very worried about you... But why did you suddenly come here without saying a word? I didn't know..." Rosalyn asked, seemingly calm, but the subtext was quite clear: Why didn't you invite me along when you came out to play?

“There’s a special situation today. I have a fight scheduled, so I’m afraid it might involve you…” Hans said softly.

"A fight?"

“Here’s what happened,” Mary explained. “My brother and I have a few good friends at school, all from the Blackwater district who study at Black Tower High School. We often help each other out. One of them, Tanguy, is always being bullied by a guy in his class named Briel. My brother recently happened to witness this and stopped him, but because the teacher arrived quickly, a fight didn’t break out…”

"This whole thing was Briel's fault. He always discriminates against students from the Blackwater region, but Briel's father is a high-ranking executive at Black Tower Pharmaceuticals, and the teachers won't do anything about it. So he challenged his brother to a fight this weekend..."

"I see." Rosalyn nodded. This matter was not complicated; it could even be described as a minor squabble between middle school students.

But on a larger scale, it could also be interpreted as follows: Black Tower School is located in the Tower District, which, as its name suggests, is a district specifically serving Black Tower Pharmaceuticals employees, and Black Tower School is such an elite school. On one side are children from the slums, and on the other are children of executives. Even if the executives' children make obvious mistakes, the teachers can only try to smooth things over, ultimately leading to this kind of off-campus resolution.

In the teacher's words, this was a class conflict... Rosalyn had a vague understanding of this.

"Where is Tanguy?" Rosalyn looked around and suddenly realized that there seemed to be another person involved in this matter who had not yet appeared.

“He’s a coward. His brother helps him, but he doesn’t dare to come,” Mary said, pursing her lips.

“No, Tanguy said his family wouldn’t let him come.” Hans shook his head, a determined look on his refined face. “I believe he’s not lying to me.”

Mary opened her mouth, but said nothing more. She could understand Tangji in this regard. After all, her parents worked tirelessly to earn money so that she and Hans could study at Black Tower High School, enter Black Tower Pharmaceuticals, make a name for themselves, and stand atop the Black Tower Building, at the very top of Ish City. Tangji's parents must have thought the same way.

At the same time, for children of this age, these great expectations can turn into mental pressure, making them gradually become timid and hesitant, afraid of causing any trouble for their parents.