Millennium Witch

Standing on a large rock in the suburban wilderness, Yvette's gaze fell on the city center of Agash in the distance. The veil of night could not cover this neon-lit city, and dazzling holographic advertisements soared into the sky, as if to show off its prosperity to the whole universe.

She recalled the seeker's gaze Hewlett had given her earlier and guessed that there was something he hadn't said: "Was the Origin Civilization really created by their own hands?"

Is the original civilization merely a child standing on the shoulders of giants, yet still complacent about its own height?

This is a difficult question to answer. Fortunately, I am just a time traveler. Whether I am or not, it will not shake my inner pride...

Yvette thought to herself, and then immediately thought of the remaining six companies: Black Tide Company, Spirit Vine Company, Gravity Group, Ember Scar Chemical, Sky Dome Technology, and Rift Group.

The Black Tower has a "divine transformation," and the Qilin's transformation has a "seed-eating" process. This may be the core reason why these two super companies chose to pursue pharmaceutical and biological businesses.

What about the other six mega-companies?

Is their technology related to something similar?

Or is it a mixed bag, with both normal and abnormal elements?

Regardless, tonight's gains have been quite substantial. The werewolf killer problem has been solved, and the mystery surrounding the original owner's identity has been unraveled...

Thinking of this, Yvette suddenly remembered something and felt a pang of regret.

She had previously used Hewlett's magical terminal to hack away at much of her own information. While this didn't prevent the Scaled Creatures from noticing her, it bought her a lot of time.

then……

She forgot to ask Hewlett for money.

She originally intended to extort money; even if it wasn't a hundred million, getting twenty or thirty million to spend shouldn't have been a problem. But when Hewlett called her family to say goodnight, the scene was a bit sentimental, and she felt embarrassed to do such a thing. Later, during her execution, she was in a rather solemn mood and completely forgot about it.

Fortunately, some equipment dropped: a military terminal with 10 rune points, a semi-liquid bio-engineered suit, and some bio-prosthetic bodies fused with the body.

Among them, biological prosthetics are out of the question. These are roughly part of the body, have genetic locks, and cannot be used even if transplanted.

Active rune sets are not unrecyclable, but collecting blood to refine them is too evil and too troublesome.

The bio-suit is usable, but Hewlett has worn it every day, so it's become stale. Once activated, the fully enclosed armor will even hinder her from using her tentacles... She plans to sell it on the black market, estimating it can fetch at least two or three million.

The only usable magic terminal is the one with 10 rune points of cache. It's at least better than her civilian-grade one with 6 rune points, and it's a military-grade product that's fetching over 80 rune points on the black market...

After calculating her gains, Yvette thought it over and felt it was time to go back and meet up with Miss Eileen to collect the bounty for the werewolf killer.

Tonight's Aberration Magic used up nearly 1000 points, which is outrageous. She'd have to devour an entire district's worth of Aberrations to regain them. But thankfully, the rewards were pretty good: intelligence, equipment, and bounty.

So she opened the message interface, responded to Miss Eileen's message, first letting her know she was safe, and then asking Eileen to take Tennyson to wait outside the police station so she could collect the reward quickly.

Then, unexpectedly, a long-lost little red dot caught her attention.

She switched over and saw a private message from the Firebearer. After more than half a month, the Civilization Survival Association had finally replied.

Chapter 61 Famous

"Before answering the doomsday prophecy, I would first ask you, my friend, have you ever wondered whether the emergence of the Big Eight companies is an inevitable development of human history or a coincidence?"

"In our analysis and predictions, the eight major companies are not a normal phenomenon in the development of civilization, but a kind of distorted, deformed cancerous cell. Their existence will only lead to the decline of civilization and push human civilization toward an inevitable doomsday."

"Undoubtedly, we do not yet know what form the apocalypse will take. It may be a global hot war that is dozens or hundreds of times larger than the 'War of the Silence,' or something else entirely."

"But at least, we can do something for the continuation of human civilization before all of this comes to pass."

"I sincerely hope that you can also become one of our comrades."

After reading the message from the Firebearer, Yvette hesitated for a moment.

As the only survivor of the original civilization, she certainly knew in what form the apocalypse had arrived: a kind of mutated factor contamination similar to a virus leak, which first polluted the oceans before destroying the land civilizations.

The view of the Civilization Survival Society is more pragmatic, even conspiratorial. They simply believe that the eight major corporations are evil forces that will destroy all of humanity, so they must prepare for the destruction in advance.

From this point of view, it seems that the Civilization Survival Society cannot provide clues to the true source of the apocalypse... but it is also possible that the Firebearers do not want to reveal the secret for the time being, so they have found another excuse.

"But... what does this have to do with me?" Yvette suddenly realized that this wasn't the reason she was paying attention to the Civilization Survival Society.

She just hoped that the civilization's survival was indeed preparing for the apocalypse, collecting all sorts of knowledge, so that she could leave the dream and take advantage of the situation in reality.

As long as civilization continues to exist and people are genuinely striving for their ideals, what does it matter if the motive is just a common conspiracy theory?

After thinking for a moment, she sent a message: "I am willing to contribute to the survival of civilization, but how do I know if you are scammers? If you have a lot of technical information, maybe we can start with knowledge trading and slowly build trust."

Her "Elemental Attenuation Completion Technology" can be copied and pasted at zero cost. Since the Civilization Survival Society dares to risk "infringing intellectual property rights" to collect various materials, she doesn't mind making use of them and exchanging the documents she already has for something else.

……

Agache, an affluent area, on the banks of the Lorne River.

When Yvette arrived, Eileen and Tennyson, her old classmates, were standing on the shore admiring the night view. Under the illuminated night sky, a massive holographic whale swam slowly, like a large ship sailing on the river. Busy shuttles shuttled back and forth on the low-altitude airway, and the shimmering neon signs draped the roadside in a purplish-red veil.

Upon seeing Yvette, Eileen immediately rushed over excitedly and asked, "Miss Wuming, are you alright? The people from AJSP told me there was nothing there, and no surveillance cameras nearby. They told me to wait for the investigation results. I really suspect they might have colluded with Lintui Biotechnology to kidnap you!"

“I want to leave, and they can’t stop me,” Yvette said.

While this was the truth, what was intentionally concealed was that she was also responsible for cleaning up the scene. She didn't devour the flesh and blood of those beast warriors, but she also didn't want to leave any clues for the molting creatures to draw conclusions, so she burned them all to ashes.

Furthermore, by using Hewlett's ID card and magical terminal access, she modified the parts related to "Zero," making it easier for Lintui Biotechnology to investigate the matter and treat it as an accident during an experiment—Hewlett took it upon herself to conduct an evil murder test, clashed with a mysterious expert, was punished, and vanished without a trace.

Although the creatures of the Scaled Metamorphosis will still notice her later, by then she will inevitably change her identity information to reduce the risk, and may even have already left the dream.

"As expected of Miss Wuming, I never knew you were so amazing..." Eileen exclaimed in amazement. She had always thought Miss Wuming was mysterious and had a hidden depth, but she never expected that the other party was hiding her true abilities so well!

Based on the abilities he displayed in today's battle against the werewolf killer, and his effortless escape from the encirclement and interception of the Scaled Creatures... he is definitely no less than the top 1000 experts in the world on the mercenary platform, right?

Yvette turned to Tennyson, and seeing his silence, asked, "How are you feeling?"

Tennyson nodded, and Eileen, standing beside him, explained, "Miss Nameless, he still can't speak normally; he can only communicate through indirect methods..."

“I’ll undo his status.” After saying that, Yvette recited a command-like phrase, interspersed with some unintelligible sounds.

This is a "spell" obtained from Hewlett that can restore the orc warrior's freedom, complementing the safety word. By simply modifying the words before and after the safety word, all shackles can be removed, granting them freedom.

Sure enough, after hearing the incantation, Tennyson's eyes lit up. He rubbed his Adam's apple, took a deep breath, and said excitedly, "I'm back to normal... Thank you, Miss Nameless!"

"It's recovered already?" Eileen said in shock.

Yvette shook her head: "You don't need to thank me. You just need to come with me to the police station obediently and help me get the 100 million bounty, and I'll be satisfied."

"..."

Tennyson paused for a moment, then immediately thought of many things. His excitement turned to bitterness in an instant, and he said in a low voice, "Don't worry... I definitely will."

……

Late at night, after leaving the police station and returning to her rented apartment in Bayard, Yvette had 100 million credits about to be credited to her account. However, considering tax issues, after going through the lengthy procedures, she might only receive 70 credits, not even enough to buy the newly confiscated magic terminal.

Then she contacted Welding Torch again, paid him a small fee, and asked him to help her get a new identity. This time, the name was changed to "Ice Rain Theon," to prevent people from associating her with "Yvette Losivia" through such a simple name-association method.

Of course, the main concern is to guard against Lintui Biotechnology. Black Tower Pharmaceuticals wouldn't make a mistake; after all, four years ago when she was active in the Blackwater District of Ish City, Zero was a four-year-old orphan in a welfare home suffering from a genetic disease. How could it be the same person?

Thinking of this, Yvette suddenly remembered telling Hewlett that she was sixteen years old, and couldn't help but smile wryly.

I filled in 16 years old when I registered my ID card four years ago, and I'm still 16 now?

Okay, let's be honest, I'll say I'm 20 from now on.

……

A few more days passed. With the bounty in hand and the desire to sell her semi-liquid bio-armor, Yvette didn't go out much. She spent her time searching for buyers on the dark web and picking out things she might need.

She planned to use the magic terminal as is for now. The black market price skyrocketed for every 1 increase in rune point cache, and she'd rather find an opportunity to rob it outright than pay such a huge premium.

Bio-armor is a good thing, but the bio-armor available on the black market, including the one she seized, doesn't have a higher defensive capability than her defensive spell "Crimson Armor," and it's also overpriced. It doesn't feel worth spending this money unnecessarily.

Perhaps we could buy a batch of low-end element chips?

When scavenging for junk in real life, most things, like magical skateboards and magical motorcycles, won't start even after the energy storage board is repaired due to damaged chips. Wouldn't it be much more convenient to buy a batch of low-end element chips from the manufacturer now?

Even alloy battle blades, the element chips they use aren't actually very precise. After all, military weapons prioritize durability over cutting-edge technology...

So, after spending a few days online at home, filtering out things I might need to buy and making a list, the tranquility of the rented room was shattered on the morning of the fifth day by a voice call from Caster, the middleman at Floating Light Bar.

"No, Miss Anonymous, you really caught the werewolf killer?"

Hearing this incredulous tone, even though she couldn't see the person, Yvette could still imagine the shocked and speechless expression on Caster's face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"You're on the news, Miss Anonymous! Big news! Front page headlines! Your debut job resulted in the capture of serial killer Werewolf Killer, and you also thwarted the dark conspiracy of Lin Tui Biotechnology, forcing Chairman 'Old Cyrus' to personally apologize to the public!"

Perhaps because a middleman had played a part in the transaction, Castor's tone was particularly excited, and he said with pride, "Now, not to mention Agassiz, even in the entire mercenary world of New Eden, you can be called famous and renowned after one battle!"

Chapter 62 caused quite a stir

Yvette was not surprised by her newfound fame, after all, the Werewolf Killer was a well-known serial killer in Agasher, who had once caused quite a stir throughout the United States of New Eden.

However, she clearly lacked an understanding of the extent of the buzz this matter had generated. After all, she didn't follow current events closely, nor did she need to. She devoted most of her energy to monitoring bids from buyers on the dark web for the bio-suit she was listing.

Hearing Castor's excited tone, Yvette, unusually, checked social media and found that the "werewolf killer" was the top headline, trending far ahead of the others, and "Bird News" was the primary source of information about the event.

She remembered the message Miss Eileen had sent her a few days ago, asking if she wanted to remain anonymous in the press release. Of course, she thought it was unnecessary. If her mercenary identity as "Nameless" couldn't become famous, how could she get high-priced commissions?

She never expected things to go viral like this, not only throughout the United States of New Eden and the Black Tide Continent, but also attracting huge international attention.

"It's caused quite a stir," she couldn't help but say.

“Yes, it’s become a political issue,” Caster sighed over the voice message.

"Political event?"

“Yes, the public has a natural aversion and fear of super-capital. Not long ago, the government even introduced a new subsidy policy for Black Tower and Lintui, which is basically feeding taxpayers’ money to big companies. Now, coincidentally, Lintui Bio has been exposed for conducting malicious human experiments and killing innocent people... Heh heh, even if it is really the culprit 'Hewlett's' doing, as the company claims, who can believe it? Now there is another round of rioting and looting in the streets. I guess our 'great' President John is also having a lot of trouble right now…” Castor chuckled.

Yvette nodded slightly. Indeed, the key point of this matter was that it stirred up public dissatisfaction and fear towards large corporations. It wouldn't have come to this extent if it were just a simple case of a serial killer being caught.

However, she felt that Black Tower Pharmaceuticals must be behind this, since Bird News itself is a Black Tower-affiliated media outlet, which is why it can expose Lintui Bio's negative news so recklessly without worrying about the reports being blocked as soon as they are published.

But now the matter is getting bigger and bigger, and the overwhelming public opinion is attacking large companies indiscriminately. Even Black Tower Pharmaceuticals itself is being affected. So can this matter maintain its popularity?

……

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the call with Custer ended. It was clear that Custer's call was intended to strengthen the relationship and maintain his connection with this suddenly prominent and important person.

However, Caster did not give a clear answer regarding the new commission, only vaguely stating that thanks to the efforts of the great heroine, Miss Nameless, peace has been restored in Agasher recently, the people are living happily, and the local area is blessed with good weather and a peaceful and prosperous nation.

This means there aren't any big orders.

She could handle small orders, but with commissions costing tens of thousands, she preferred to focus more on the bio-engineered equipment she listed for sale on the dark web—the current prices for this item were around 210 million, which was clearly too low. With a little effort, she could easily break through 250 million.

While asking Caster to keep an eye out for big deals worth no less than 30, Yvette thought about asking a few more middlemen for information.

Although Castor stated that the large orders received by Agasher's middlemen were all roughly the same, meaning that the clients would assign orders to reputable middlemen and whoever took the order first would get it, who knows if he might be lying? It's always better to be safe than sorry.

He then hung up the phone and was about to leave when Miss Eileen called again.

She began by congratulating Yvette on becoming a prominent figure in Agasher—nowadays, you could find people talking about the werewolf killer incident and the mysterious female mercenary known as "Nameless" in any bar or similar place, making her the talk of the town.

Then Eileen happily announced that, thanks to the werewolf killer incident, she had been promoted from an intern reporter to an investigative reporter at lightning speed, also covering some criminal-related sections. At the end of the month, Bird News would be giving her an internal award with a substantial bonus.

After Yvette offered a few perfunctory congratulatory remarks, she started complaining again, and as expected, Bird News had received a notice from above that it would no longer continue its coverage of the werewolf killer incident and could not mention it again in the future; the goal was to suppress the incident as much as possible.

This must have been at the behest of Black Tower Pharmaceuticals. They originally wanted to take the opportunity to punch a competitor, but unexpectedly, they were criticized even though they did nothing. Now, they probably reached some kind of agreement with Lintui Biotechnology, which is why they decided to cool things down as soon as possible.

However, this has nothing to do with Yvette. She already has enough fame, and now all she needs to do is wait for commissions.

……

While waiting for a reply from the Civilization Survival Association and for a new commission, Yvette spent a hefty sum of 20 to purchase a three-month auditing pass for Agassi University, so she could attend classes there.

As a seasoned rune hacker with hundreds of years of experience, Yvette has always been self-taught and has never experienced systematic training.

This leads her to frequently doubt whether the methods she uses are correct, whether they are unorthodox, or whether there are better methods that she hasn't discovered.

Now she can finally go to a prestigious university to find out for herself. Even if it's just to verify whether her past methods were correct, it will be a good supplement for her and can make her Dao heart more stable.

result……

You won't believe it until you go. After attending a few proper classes, Yvette discovered that the rune compilation tools in the Origin Civilization were actually quite sophisticated.

Furthermore, these software programs are so specialized that people outside the field would likely never even have heard of them. Although Yvette knew of their existence in the past, the subscription fees were too expensive, and she wasn't financially well-off when she entered the dream last time, so she couldn't bring herself to spend the money to try them out.

Now, after listening to lectures by university professors, she understands the hardships she endured in the past.

In the Origin Civilization, major corporations had long provided rune compilers with ready-made, complete development engines, as well as countless virtual assets in the marketplace. Many novice compilers only needed to combine a few assets, along with their teacher's instruction, a little artistic talent, and a few clever ideas, to develop an immature but functional spell.

Yvette had always developed her techniques from scratch, with nothing to begin with, making the process incredibly difficult and arduous. Comparing these experiences, her Dao heart not only failed to stabilize but was on the verge of collapse.

She felt sad, thinking she should have stayed.

She could have accepted the darkness, but why let her see the light?