Hosoda Yoshiyuki followed Seeking Shadow, searching for the person who had called for help from the Cyber Specter.
They moved through the dry, bleak woods, littered with discarded advertising billboards, rusted vehicles, and damaged building materials. The Self-savers lived amidst these heavy materials, many of them lacking any real hands-on skills, needing the natural cover for shelter from the wind and rain.
Hosoda Yoshiyuki disliked the Self-savers because they were too indolent.
In this place, a Poison Master controlled a rationing terminal that directly connected to the public warehouse. The terminal housed a cheap AI that could provide 1000 to 3500 grams of grains, meat, vegetables, and clean water every day based on a Self-saver’s weight, gender, and age. It also distributed necessities fairly evenly and required applications for anything extra. It even let all the Self-savers openly vote on major issues.
Now, the life of a Self-saver had become peculiar. Over the past few months, they had freed themselves from the grueling labor of the city, stopped working and repaying debts, detached from the corporatist society, and with food and drink in supply, their suppressed reproductive needs skyrocketed.
Hosoda Yoshiyuki could easily scan dozens of men and women entangled by their innate needs, as if there were no tomorrow.
He had observed that a virgin, whether male or female, would typically lose their chastity within half a day here. The place was filled with people who were happy, decadent, and idle.
They drank, reproduced, and voted on public matters.
The prosperity of the community relied on new members; newcomers had to all their family assets to enter this fringe territory. Hosoda Yoshiyuki had been waiting for it to collapse, but it never did; instead, more and more people kept fleeing Anjiu City, believing they would find salvation here. Among them were even somewhat wealthier individuals, who, having lost faith in the worldly life, d tens or even hundreds of millions in one fell swoop; some even d tens of millions.
Hosoda Yoshiyuki believed that the place also harbored exiled Witches, but he could not confirm it.
Many people did nothing all day, sitting on dry wood, fishing, patiently sewing clothes with primitive needles and thread, singing, or cultivating chlorella for drinking.
More people came in due to unemployment, unable to support themselves, having heard about the food and drink here, and thus choosing to join. Most of them were as decadent as the lazy, making everything here unbearable for Hosoda Yoshiyuki, hence his extreme bitterness.
Every coward who does not wield a sword against beasts is a potential servant of beasts.
"You still defend this community." Hosoda Yoshiyuki couldn’t help but say, "Why?"
"To train emotion." Seeking Shadow strode forward, "I can learn, I can grow, and this place has taught me many complex emotions, mostly negative, but I can digest them. Remember, you are alive now because I guard the entrance and exit of the Self Help Society, keeping the petty thieves at bay."
"It’s clearly because you’re worried I’ll fight the mercenaries and burn this place to ashes," Hosoda Yoshiyuki scoffed.
Seeking Shadow stood in the road, watching Hosoda Yoshiyuki with a cold, mechanical gaze that made him feel a twinge of apprehension.
"You can’t go on being so arrogant," she said, turning to continue, "because the Cyber Specter is now placing its gaze upon your head."
Cyber Specter. Hosoda Yoshiyuki felt his heart sink as if cast into an icy pit. What would he do next? He found himself implanted with a trojan, at the mercy of others.
Seeking Shadow found the people in the Self Help Society who matched the description. They were siblings, both surnamed Sajou; the sister was named Chiyuki Sajou, and the brother Jiro Sajou.
"Sajou" originally meant a place for dumping garbage. Children born near Garbage Hill were mostly named after it, to strengthen their cohesion, signifying their accompaniment with trash from birth, disconnected from the prosperous Anjiu City.
Chiyuki Sajou appeared very anxious, with black hair, a young and naïve look, having undergone some modifications, her face showing the marks of metal incisions that had been made and then sutured, with a black neural interface behind her ear.
At that moment, she was fixing an old terminal with a white casing using her tool-equipped right hand.
Hosoda Yoshiyuki carefully observed the broken terminal, which was decorated with things they found appealing, including stainless steel, glass orbs, red cords and an old aviator jacket, making it look exceptionally exquisite and somewhat sacred.
It was almost like a "statue" of the Cyber Specter.
"I heard they all hate the corporations." Hosoda Yoshiyuki said.
"Yes, many in the Scavengers Society believe the Cyber Specter is the end of corporatism," said Seeking Shadow, "They detest the corporations. If it weren’t for those maniacs dumping trash, perhaps their lives would be a bit easier. They were originally living in small communities, minding their own business, until Garbage Hill was piled over their heads."
"They should worship capitalism, find legitimate work, and then move into the city," scoffed Hosoda Yoshiyuki.
In reality, he despised those corporate workers and corporate dogs the most, clinging to money and power, fully aware that joining the system would bring more oppression yet acting as if they were committed without reservation.
Therefore, he had no qualms about killing corporate workers, corporate security, and mercenaries.
Upon hearing their conversation, Chiyuki Sajou withdrew the screwdriver back into her palm, turned her head to look at them uneasily. The flesh of her hand had been hollowed out, leaving a space for a tiny storage compartment.
Many people undergo this procedure on their arms, thighs, and other such places, to be able to hide items within their bodies, thus serving as a theft deterrent.
Hosoda Yoshiyuki, a master craftsman in implant modification, noticed that she was using the cheapest implant, which was prone to causing adverse reactions and could induce degenerative muscle diseases. He wanted to offer guidance out loud, but remembering how unwelcome he was there, he kept his mouth shut.
"It’s the envoy of the Cyber Specter! It has heard us." Chiyuki Sajou exclaimed with joy upon seeing Seeking Shadow, "We are saved!"
Seeking Shadow entered the house to assess the situation.
She saw Chiyuki’s brother, Jiro Sajou lying on a plastic waterproof sheet, his right leg injured, swollen, rotting, oozing pus, with a high fever, unable to open his eyes, his complexion terribly pale, and his lips white.
"It’s serious," Seeking Shadow said. "How did it get to this point?"
"He cut himself while climbing Garbage Hill," Chiyuki Sajou said, tears streaming down her face, "...I...I don’t want to watch him die, yet I am powerless to help, and outside..."
She glanced nervously at Hosoda Yoshiyuki, then hastily looked away to avoid his gaze.
Hosoda Yoshiyuki noticed this little gesture but still did not say a word.
"You are the one who disturbed them," Seeking Shadow glared at Hosoda Yoshiyuki. "It’s you, strutting around the Self Help Society, acting high and mighty, causing them undue stress, to the point where they can’t even rest properly."
"The boy needs antibiotics, not specters," Hosoda Yoshiyuki retorted gruffly. "I must go through here, quickly and forcefully! I have to shout, like herding ducks, to wake each person from their daze. The entrepreneurs we ought to crush are still at large in the city, while you live like ants, accomplishing nothing of note."
Seeking Shadow, holding the Shadow Kill, blasted Hosoda Yoshiyuki out the door in one breath, telling him to stay far away, then she returned inside, closed the iron door, and put away the sword.
She looked at the packaged terminal machine, which they genuinely followed as a ritualized target, invoking the Cyber Specter. Such an act of foolishness was saturated with their powerlessness.
Jiro Sajou struggled to open his eyes and, seeing Seeking Shadow present, felt almost relieved.
"We did it," Jiro whispered. "It responded to us..."
"What the Synthetic Human said earlier is correct," Seeking Shadow spoke, "you need antibiotics, not worship. It’s too late now, there are no medications in the Self Help Society, nor automated doctors. The nearest hospital in the city is at least two hours away; you missed your best chance for treatment."
"...How were we to know," Chiyuki Sajou sighed. "But how can we afford treatment? When our mother fell ill, she immediately threw herself into the sea and died. I don’t want to see my brother suffer the same fate."
Seeking Shadow paused.
"There is only one way to save your brother," she said. "But once you witness it, you will have to agree to a non-disclosure agreement, possibly sacrificing your past and taking up an ancient legacy. Bear in mind that this means a great sacrifice, effort, and responsibility."
Chiyuki Sajou gently stroked her brother’s cheek.
"If we give up, all that’s left for us is death," she said with a quivering voice. "We are not afraid, we accept anything."
Seeking Shadow stood still, seemingly logging something, accepting files sent from afar.
"Follow my lead," Seeking Shadow instructed Chiyuki to perform a type of witchcraft, a healing aspect from the spellbook, belonging to the Moon’s Miracles.
Synthetic Humans cannot summon energies, inciting resonance in the air, but humans can.
"It will drain your mental and physical strength, leaving you exhausted," Seeking Shadow cautioned.
"I will not give up," Chiyuki said.
She attempted to mimic Seeking Shadow’s incantation, copying her gestures, and soon a faint humming sound emerged from the air with pale moon-white runes appearing, unleashing the power of miracles.
A clear moonbeam radiated from the runes, shining on Jiro Sajou’s festering right leg. Quickly, the pus and infection were expelled from the wound, as Jiro let out a quiet groan, enduring the pain. But soon enough, he felt the agony being drawn out from his body, as the injury slowly healed.
Her face grew pale, but for her brother’s sake, Chiyuki was willing to push herself to the limit, until her physical strength was drained.
"Miracle," she prayed silently. As she completed the casting of the spell, Jiro’s leg wounds gradually receded, leaving only scars.
Tears streamed down Chiyuki’s face.