Millennium Witch

"What do you think of these passersby?" Yvette suddenly asked after walking for a while.

"Huh?" Rosalyn was slightly taken aback, then thought for a moment and said, "They're very curious about us, but also a little... ill-intentioned."

"No... I'm asking you, when you looked over, did their bodies appear anything strange, like being translucent or blurry?"

"no."

"I see."

"In the eyes of teachers, are they transparent and blurry?"

"Ah."

"Wow! Did the teacher see right through them?"

"……Maybe."

A few minutes later, when Yvette walked out of the alley, she had two ID cards in her hand.

"Teacher, this really is a dream, right?" Rosalyn said nervously.

Yvette nodded slightly, indicating that she was reassured.

Although she had never survived in the pre-apocalyptic world, she was certain of one thing by reading the novels and books that remained: one could not live here without identification.

What if you don't have an ID card?

Yvette's answer was entrapment.

So, in order to find a suitable target, the two wandered around a couple more times before leaving the alley, and finally encountered a group of three young men with ill intentions.

Dressed in rebellious punk attire, they were instantly smitten with the two stunningly beautiful girls. They surrounded them, eager to grab their clothes, but before they could even touch them, Yvette killed them like she was eliminating mutants, thus easily obtaining their identification documents.

Of course, this startled Rosalyn. She didn't know much about this kind of thing and wasn't sure what terrible consequences would come after being surrounded by these three young people. She only knew that her teacher's killing actions were too swift and decisive. Before she could even react, she saw the blue wind transform into blades, piercing through the chests of the three people, and blood gushing out.

In the end, she was the one who did the arson and cover up the body; they were truly a first-rate heinous criminal duo.

……

"Do we have identities now?" Perhaps because this was a dream, or perhaps because she had seen too many disgusting scenes while killing aberrant mutants, Rosalyn adjusted extremely quickly to the bloody killings at close range, recovering almost instantly.

“No, we need to operate it one more time.” With that, Yvette walked to a machine by the roadside.

This is a public service facility that can handle most problems in one place. She placed her finger on the touchpad and connected the furnace ring on her hand to a sensor slot. Soon, with the help of the magic terminal, she began hacking into the police system and modifying the ID information.

This was a considerable challenge for Yvette, because the post-apocalyptic world didn't require knowledge of "rune hacking." She had learned it, but it was purely icing on the cake; she had never practiced it before. She never expected that she would actually have a chance to use it today.

"Fortunately, the police system in this area is very lax. As the poorest district in Ish City, Blackwater District probably doesn't have much funding for maintenance in this area?"

About ten minutes later, Yvette returned to Rosalind's side, still guessing, and handed her the ID card.

Rosalind glanced down and noticed that the information and photo on the card had changed. Now it was a cute blonde girl's face as the ID photo, and the name was "Rosalind Loshivia".

Correspondingly, Yvette's official name naturally became "Yvette Theon".

The reason for this name change is that the current year is 2124, a year before the original owner participated in the "Rebirth Project." Yvette suspects that her pre-apocalyptic self might also appear in this dream, with a corresponding orphanage registration identity and being scrutinized by Black Tower Medicine. This slight modification can avoid some trouble.

Rosalind was naturally unaware of this, but in the Kingdom of Eton, changing one's surname only happened after marriage, and she immediately looked a little shy—of course, she didn't actually understand what marriage was.

After finishing the ID card tampering, Yvette didn't forget to try to steal the savings of the three unfortunate men.

However, the bank's firewall was beyond the capabilities of a novice hacker with only theoretical knowledge. So, after much thought, she decided to put some of their online digital assets up for sale, such as cryptocurrencies, gambling platform chips, and various virtual game accounts.

After two or three hours of work, I only earned a little over 6000 credits, barely enough to stay in a budget hotel for a month.

"So few. These three poor bastards, no wonder they live in the Blackwater District..." After working for half a day, Yvette was not very satisfied.

She also wanted to list the real estate of these three poor people for sale, but this would easily alert their acquaintances, causing the falsification of their identities to be discovered sooner.

So she could only make do for now, and when she had the money, she would use gray channels to buy a new identity... She silently began to plan.

……

As night fell completely, they finally found a cheap hotel. Rain dripped from their hair, and their white dress clung to their bodies, making the powerful and elegant witch appear unusually disheveled.

Even so, as a reliable teacher, Yvette patiently conducted a thorough check before Rosalyn used the bathroom to make sure there were no hidden cameras before letting her in.

After Yvette finished showering, she came out and saw Rosalyn standing by the window, gazing longingly at the Central District in the distance.

Yvette calmly walked up behind her.

Actually, the windows here aren't clean; they're covered with a thin layer of oil film that reflects the city's light pollution, making the neon lights and holographic advertisements outside blurry and distorted.

Rosalind was still watching with great interest. After all, for someone from a medieval civilization, everything from today to now was far too advanced. Even the time when she first stepped into the Land of the End could not compare to the shock she felt at this moment.

"Teacher, is this the Kingdom of God?" After a long while, Yvette heard Rosalyn exclaim in a dreamy tone.

"No. But if it is, it is also an 'evil god'."

“Yeah, hehe.” Rosalyn continued staring out the window, as if she could look at it for a whole day and night without getting tired.

"Want to go take a look?"

"miss you!"

"Rest first, I'll take you out for a walk tomorrow."

"it is good!"

Filled with boundless longing for the origins of civilization, Rosalyn excitedly lay down on the bed, and unsurprisingly, suffered from insomnia all night.

Chapter 18 Cyber ​​Mage

The next morning, before dawn, Yvette was woken up. She groggily opened her eyes and saw her student sitting on the carpet, leaning over the edge of the bed, staring at her with panda eyes, looking like a cute blonde ghost.

“Good morning, teacher,” Rosalyn said.

"...What time did you start lying here?"

"It seems so, around four o'clock."

"Getting up so early?"

"...I can't sleep."

"Okay, remember you're not allowed to lie next to my bed anymore."

“…Okay.” Realizing she might have been rejected, Rosalyn made a sound like a wronged puppy.

No matter how tired she was, Rosalyn's heart leaped with joy at the thought of exploring this magnificent "ancient kingdom".

She diligently brought the teacher the dried clothes, but then she heard the doorbell ring.

As she opened the door, Rosalyn's breath caught in her throat for a second—a life-size doll stood silently in the narrow corridor, its porcelain-white skin gleaming coldly, its ball joints making a soft clicking sound as it bowed, and it carrying two boxes in its hands.

"Welcome to 'Sky Express'. This is your package, which has been photographed and signed for. Have a nice day, goodbye." After saying this, the doll handed over the package and left, leaving a stunned Rosalind standing there.

"Teacher, teacher...!!" Rosalyn stammered in surprise, "There was a human-human-human doll just now!! It gave me something! How could that doll talk?"

"That thing is clothes I ordered online. I introduced it to you last night. The doll is a 'mechanical puppet,' a kind of magical mechanical creation. It looks like a human, but it has no soul. It's a dead object that imitates a human."

"It's amazing, it's like something out of a fairy tale..."

After receiving the teacher's explanation, Rosalyn clicked her tongue in amazement, closed the door, and opened the box. Inside were the clothes she had chosen the night before: one set in the teacher's simple black and white style, and another set in her own girly blue and white style.

"Let's go," Yvette said after changing.

"Ok!"

Soon, led by Yvette, Rosalyn arrived outside the hotel and took a deep breath. The streets weren't clean; chewing gum and strange advertising cards were stuck to the ground, and the walls were covered in exaggerated graffiti and suspicious marks accompanied by a foul odor.

However, she was unmoved by it; she had seen far dirtier streets in the Earl's territory, and this little bit of dirt was nothing to her.

At that moment, all she could see was the wonder of the unknown world, and even the aroma of fried food wafting from the roadside breakfast stalls seemed particularly tempting.

"Teacher, where are we going next?" Rosalin asked expectantly after breakfast, her mindset completely geared towards tourism.

“Let’s take a look around a few places here first, and see if there are any ways to make money. If you feel sleepy, you can go back to your room to sleep… In the evening, I’ll take you to the city center, which is the area around our ‘home’,” Yvette said.

As an experienced person, Yvette's current understanding of the dream fog is "survival," which means doing nothing, just avoiding accidental death, and letting time pass so the dream will collapse on its own. To survive, the most urgent task is to make money. Once she has money, she will naturally have ways to buy a more secure ID card to clear herself of suspicion for heinous murder and illegal intrusion into the police system—although these are all true.

So last night, besides buying clothes online, Yvette also scoured various local online forums in Ish, searching for gray areas. Eventually, she spent a little money on a few anonymous channels and bought the specific locations of several "underground trading markets" in the Blackwater district. She plans to go and take a look today to see what kind of work she can do.

Once the money issue is resolved, taking her apprentice to the city center for a lavish celebration will be no problem. She can even buy some items she needs and try to bring them into reality when the dream ends.

“No, teacher, I’m really not sleepy at all,” Rosalyn said immediately.

Yvette glanced at her still-present dark circles and hummed in agreement.

……

The street where Yvette and Rosalyn live is called "Pixel Street." The name sounds funny, but it actually comes from the street office's unique understanding of "macroeconomics of extra income distribution," which results in holographic advertisements here always being blurrier than elsewhere.

About five kilometers down this street, there is an underground exchange called the "Garbage Dump Black Market," built beneath a garbage dump and converted from an air-raid shelter. Many shady transactions take place here, making it extremely hostile to non-locals; without a trustworthy intermediary, no one is allowed to enter.

As newcomers to the area, Yvette certainly couldn't find any locals willing to vouch for them, but she was still determined to give it a try.

Soon, after getting off the strangely smelly bus, they found themselves on the edge of the Blackwater District, with wasteland stretching into the distance along the roadside. One fenced-off area, piled high with garbage, was their destination.

The two guards at the landfill were burly men, one with short hair and the other bald, both nearly two meters tall, with cybernetic arms, making them imposing and formidable.

Seeing Yvette and Rosalyn approach, the bald, burly man immediately stepped forward and coldly rebuked them, "Kids, this isn't a place for you! Go home!"

Clearly, Yvette and Rosalyn's pretty faces, clean and brand-new clothes, and high school age led the two gatekeepers to mistake them for young tourists who had wandered into the wrong place.

Yvette didn't speak. She raised her head expressionlessly and looked at the bald, burly man until his impatience reached its peak, at which point she suddenly snapped her fingers.

The next second, four huge red rune rings appeared around Yvette, and from each rune ring emerged a ferocious fire dragon that intertwined and coiled above the girl's head, making her instantly resemble a fire angel descending from the sky, majestic and awe-inspiring.

"A cyber mage?!" This unconventional move instantly snapped the bald man back to reality, causing him to stumble back several steps. The short-haired burly man beside him also paled.

This is the most dangerous group in all the gray areas of the Origin Civilization, and at the same time, they often have another name: "Rune Hackers"!

"What do you want to do?" The bald, burly man, having forced himself to calm down, immediately distanced himself by more than ten meters and asked warily.

His mechanical prosthetic arms looked intimidating, but they were actually just the lowest-grade model. Apart from being a little stronger, they had no additional functions, and he didn't want to clash with the cyber mages.

“We’d like to do some business here, um, but we don’t have a guarantor,” Yvette said expressionlessly after dispelling the magic.

The two gatekeepers looked at each other in disbelief at the unexpected answer. Their gray market only provided small-scale business, and the people who came here to trade were all from the local underclass. How could a dignified cyber mage be interested in the profits of such a place?

"Um... Respected Mage, please wait a moment. We can't make a decision on this matter yet; we need to inform our leader first..."

Yvette hummed in agreement, slightly raising her chin to signal the two to hurry.

Chapter 19 Hardcore Benchmarking

A moment later, the iron door to the air-raid shelter slowly opened with a screeching sound, revealing a giant nearly two and a half meters tall standing behind it. He wore a simple black shirt and had not undergone any mechanical modifications, but his muscles bulged like balloons. Upon closer inspection, one could see that he wore a ring-shaped magical terminal on the index and middle fingers of both his hands.

This made Yvette glance at her a little longer, raising an eyebrow slightly.

—A normal person would not need to use four magic terminals unless he has a special need for them, such as as a reserve tool for magical formulas.

Soon enough, the term "cyber mage" immediately came to Yvette's mind. But unlike her, a pseudo-cyber mage, the opponent was likely the real deal, and was probably following the Black Tower Medicine's "Active Rune Set," and might even have used "Rune Elixir" to enhance the body.

Well, strictly speaking, they should be considered bio-magicians or mutant mages...

"I'm the one in charge here, and the brothers in the underworld all call me 'Welding Gun.' Beautiful mage, what's your name?" Despite his burly and fierce appearance, the giant spoke with a refined and gentle tone, sounding like someone who had been educated.

“Yvette Theon.” Yvette gave her name; since it was a dream and a pseudonym anyway, she didn’t bother to make one up.

"Miss Theon, I heard from my men that you want to make a deal here?"

"Yes."

"In that case, please come in and talk."

Yvette gave a calm "hmm." Although she looked like a beautiful girl who couldn't even kill a chicken, her composed aura made the welding torch look at her with new respect.

On this planet, strength can be acquired by spending money, but charisma and inner qualities can only be cultivated over time. This girl was neither arrogant nor timid, which made him wonder about her age.

He suspected that the person had been injected with a secret elixir that supposedly kept them young, and that their real age was probably in their forties or fifties... he thought warily.

Following the welding torch into the air-raid shelter, through a rough underground corridor riddled with bullet holes, and listening to the approaching clamor, the master and apprentice saw the underground market.

The scorching gun barrels glowed blue on the stall, and the hum of the lightning blades sliced ​​through the air. Although they were all obsolete runic weapons, they were perfectly adequate for ordinary people, and their prices ranged from several thousand to tens of thousands.

Besides, in the corner of the hall filled with vulgar language, there was a huddled exchange of addictive substances that were even more dangerous than weapons. Rosalyn looked over curiously, only to be met with filthy and drooling gazes, which made her hastily put on a stern face and imitate her teacher's nonchalant attitude.

The welding torch's "meeting room" is an iron cage enclosed by explosion-proof steel plates.

He sat down on the sofa inside the iron cage, ignoring the noisy surroundings, silently poured three cups of coffee, pushed two of them to the person opposite him, and said, "Are you two new to the Blackwater area?"

A wisp of white steam rose from the rim of the coffee cup, carrying the bitter almond aroma of some kind of additive. Yvette gestured for Rosalyn not to touch it, then nodded slightly: "Yes."