Cyber Era Witch

Matteo drove Xu Yang deep into Aizu City's Underground City, leaving Number 26 Highland and heading towards Katagi District.

Katagi District is the most remote and chaotic place in Aizu City's Underground City.

The bustling neon lights and billboards gradually faded into the distance, leaving only the steel domes and cold high walls. He saw the simple residential areas underground, shops, and barracks barely kept alive under the feeble lighting. Cables and fiber optics crisscrossed outside like a swarm of insects; the surroundings were filled with dark alleys and bottomless crevices, utterly gloomy.

The ventilation ducts appeared at random, connected to the large central-axis fans above that spun rapidly, as if eager to suck all the stench from the underground.

The destitute population pushed out by the city was scattered in these areas, forgotten by maps and urban planning.

Poverty is the original sin.

When he had the money, he wanted to flee to a distant place, to a steamy seaside city, buy a villa on the beach, a yacht. Xu Yang silently sketched out his dreams.

He saw a group of motorcyclists roaring through the streets with guns in their hands, heading off to God knows where to fight. Matteo drove fast, but still made a sharp turn to avoid them.

"Those are local gangs," Matteo said, "where the corporations can't reach, the gangs take over."

"I almost thought you were going to hit them."

"No way," Matteo said, "brother, many local gangs are armed robots, who knows if they're wrapped in explosives. My 'General' here can't withstand any turbulence."

The General brand off-road vehicle is a sub-brand of Kyoto Infinity, not of high quality.

Kyoto Infinity...

"They're not easy to deal with," Xu Yang said, "the people of Kyoto Infinity... it's not like they only make anime and figurines, Anjiu City is their backyard."

"Right, Anjiu City is indeed a diamond in their plan, but where are we now?"

"A place outside their plans." Xu Yang realized.

"In a godforsaken place like Katagi District," Matteo said, "even the Corporate Quick Reaction Force would take 30 minutes to get in. The poverty rate is over 80%, no need to calculate the crime rate, it's all scumbags."

Xu Yang picked up the anonymous cash card in his arms, transferring the money to his personal cash card, which had a balance of ten million and a little over one hundred thousand.

Corporations, especially the mega-corporations that form the Corporate Alliance, provide their employees with security, jobs, salaries, loans, and vouchers, ensuring one can have a relatively successful life before burning out around 40 to 50 years old.

This has already become the dream of billions of people worldwide, a position in a mega-corporation!

And outside the window...

For the first time, Xu Yang witnessed such poverty with his own eyes.

The vehicle passed through a large area of shantytowns made of corrugated iron huts, where the poor, destitute, and half-naked people clung to life. They stood on rocks and barren, lightless grounds, looking at the speeding vehicles with the dull gaze of domestic pigs.

There were no hospitals or stores, just isolated corrugated iron huts scattered about.

The structure of life inside and outside the corporations is different; life is bright and beautiful within the mega-corporations, while outside, it can only be called survival. Nobody wants to be considered talent sent into society. To avoid the fate of layoffs, disassembly, and death, Xu Yang made a desperate effort. However, he didn't arrive at a paradise but rather a dangerous environment as treacherous as a quagmire. There is no order or law here, only violence is recognized.

Xu Yang needs to be cautious to eke out a chance for life in such a place. His Digital Mind gave him hacking abilities far beyond those of a regular hacker, which is the foundation of his existence. The contract before him was lucrative, but the risk was also incredibly high. He needed to violate corporate laws and compete with other large corporations to become an outright criminal.

"Do you believe a person can survive without a corporation?" Xu Yang asked.

"I don't know." Matteo said.

The path to corruption is simple.

Lose your job or become unemployed, no longer able to afford security services, the supply for apartment rent cut off, from the Ground City moved to the Underground City, then from the Underground City fall to the outermost edges.

At least corporate people are considered humans, those who can't join a corporation aren't even considered human.

...escaped from a place envied by countless others.

...with money but useless, lost the protection of corporate power, at the risk of death at any moment.

...impossible to return to any corporate employment, already stained within the Corporate Alliance, becoming an inhuman creature cast aside by the corporate system.

No wonder so many people would rather suffer in mega-corporations than flee outside to make money.

These thoughts unsettled Xu Yang, fueling his sense of injustice, especially as each aspect echoed exactly what Pan Ruiyi had scolded him with—you're nothing without a corporation!

Even the big guy beside him relied on some corporation, and might even be a mercenary sent by other mega-corporations.

Can't worry about that now.

Take the money, make a run for it, avoid being hunted down.

Fight for his own respect.

Mega-corporations are merely blissful greenhouses that provide safety and also slowly domesticate people, blunting their will over decades of work and leading them to accept their fate.

A real person should never be like those who work themselves to death within a corporation. There must be a system that can replace the corporate one, bringing freedom to humans and to Witches. The nature of Xu Yang's work required him to exercise his brainpower most of the time. Amid countless restless nights before sleep, he had pondered many things. Now, in the underground peril, those thoughts turned into actual drive, spurring him to keep moving.

The vehicle passed through an underground void, nearing the entrance to the excavation site; Xu Yang saw that the mining company had blasted open a huge cavity underground, seemingly a relic from a previous era, resembling a palace but with its main body deeply buried in cold rock, making accurate assessment impossible.