Chapter 88 – Are You a Witch or a Succubus, Anyway?

After analyzing the situation, they concluded that the Dark Realm Alliance was the most likely culprit.

Qin Ling cursed under her breath. “Those Dark Realm Alliance bastards really don’t play by any rules.”

“Even if Lin Xi burned some pet of theirs, that only happened because you were forced into the Dark Domain. It was completely self-defense!”

“Exactly,” Lin Xi chimed in. “That awful Maid was even planning to cut me in half. By the way, is the Dark Realm Alliance really that powerful?”

“Very,” Qin Ling said. “Their goal is to wipe out humanity.”

Lin Xi: “…”

Damn it!

She had been targeted by the biggest terrorist organization in the world!

“Z City has been pretty quiet lately, so I don’t think they’ll act recklessly for now,” Qin Ling said. “I’ll report this important intel to Sister Lin.”

“Whether it was the Dark Realm Alliance that ambushed us or not, everyone needs to be extra careful from now on.”

“Also, once you get back, make sure to search carefully for any micro listening devices.”

“Lin Xi, after the Evil Maid set her sights on you, how did you get away in the end?”

“Luckily, I ran into Xia Xun.” Lin Xi told them what had happened afterward as well.

Qin Ling immediately put on a meaningful expression.

“You and Magical Girl Xia Xun are already that close???”

“I… well,” Lin Xi said with a smile, “maybe that’s just the charm of my personality.”

“Lin Xi! Are you a witch or a Succubus, anyway?!”

Lin Xi: “…”

“How did I suddenly become a Succubus?”

“Think about it,” Qin Ling analyzed. “You’ve got the four of us around you, plus Xia Xun and Zhao Xinning-“

“And Yang Shanshan and Su Xiangxue,” Shi Yu added. “Lin Xi is very close to those two girls in class.”

Qin Ling nodded with exaggerated seriousness.

“Lin Xi! You Blazing Flame Succubus! Just how many girls are you planning to seduce before you’re satisfied?!”

Lin Xi: “…”

“No, stop randomly slapping labels on me. Good kids aren’t allowed to get that absurd.”

Lin Xi was still planning to finish the Cuddle Witch’s Last Wish List. If she counted the items on the list plus whatever came up outside it, wouldn’t she end up buried in a pile of beautiful girls by the end?

So the Succubus was me all along?!

No, no, no-

Which of the girls around her would ever like someone like her?

Being able to call them friends was already more than enough for Lin Xi…

Lin Xi didn’t want to continue this ridiculous “Succubus” topic, so she looked at Shi Yu.

“Shi Yu, is there still a chance you’ll survive?”

“Just how eager are you for me to die?”

“No, I’m seriously worried about you.”

Shi Yu said she wouldn’t die anytime soon.

“Because we have this!” As Shi Yu’s “attending physician,” Qin Ling had the most authority on the matter.

She showed Lin Xi a cylindrical container. Inside, a heart was suspended in pale green liquid.

“This is what we stole from the safe at Jinrui Bank.”

“An artificial heart from C City. It’s the core of an artificial superpower user.”

C City, artificial heart, artificial superpower user… Lin Xi was completely lost.

Shi Yu picked up where Qin Ling left off and explained, “I am an artificial superpower user. My ability is that, through touch, I can learn the other person’s true identity.”

That much Lin Xi knew. At the very start, she had accidentally touched Shi Yu, which was how Shi Yu discovered her identity as a witch.

“Actually, even I only remembered that I was an artificial human after I got shot and the core released a signal that stimulated my brain.”

“So it turns out I died in a car accident a long time ago.”

“But my parents were senior researchers at Shuguang Technology. At the time, they were involved in the artificial superpower user research project.”

“They used the results of that research to bring me back to life, and they ‘deleted’ the terrible memory of me dying in the accident.”

“My parents could only carry out the experiment in secret, because what Shuguang Technology wanted was an artificial superpower user with no thoughts of their own and overwhelming combat ability.”

“I have a brain. I can think. And the superpower I possess isn’t combat-oriented.”

“To Shuguang Technology, I wasn’t a qualified ‘product.'”

“Later on, Shuguang Technology did create a powerful artificial superpower user, but it couldn’t be controlled. It became a monster.”

“Lin Xi, do you remember what I told you about how the Mass Grave in the northern outskirts of District 3 came to be?”

Lin Xi nodded.

One of their Safe Houses was beneath a grave in the Mass Grave. The first time Lin Xi went there, she had asked about it.

Shi Yu had said that the destruction of North Suburb Town hadn’t been caused by an attack from a First-Grade Disaster, but by a monster that escaped from the Shuguang Technology Laboratory.

After that catastrophic accident, Shi Yu’s parents refused to continue that line of research. They secretly gathered evidence and prepared to report Shuguang Technology. But in the end, they were brutally murdered…

“The monster that destroyed the town was an artificial superpower user that went out of control-powerful, but with no mind of its own?”

“Yes.” Shi Yu pointed at the container Qin Ling was holding. “The heart is the core of an artificial superpower user.”

“The one I have now was damaged when I was shot. Luckily, we have this one to replace it.”

“This is an artificial heart from C City. My guess is that after that runaway incident, Shuguang Technology couldn’t solve the problem with the core, so they went to C City and got this artificial heart.”

“C City is also known as the ‘City of Artificial Humans’ and the ‘City of Despair.’ They believe that since human flesh and blood can hardly stand against Dark Realm monsters, the way to deal with Dark Realm Disaster is through ‘mechanical ascension.'”

“Human experimentation, which is strictly forbidden in every other city, is the norm in C City.”

“The other cities all agree: if you modify humans into some kind of twisted mess, are they still human? C City’s actions are as great a threat to humanity’s survival as Dark Realm Disaster.”

“Everyone despises C City’s methods. They’ve cut off all contact with C City and strictly banned anything that comes from there.”

“That’s why Shuguang Technology kept this artificial heart so tightly under wraps. They probably weren’t ready to restart the experiment yet, which is why they never used it.”

“As for why we got this mission, it’s because the organization detected that something from C City had entered Z City, and we were supposed to intercept it.”

Shi Yu had nearly lost her life because of this mission, but because of this mission, she had also obtained an even stronger core.

It really was just like the saying:

Misfortune is where fortune leans; fortune is where misfortune hides.

Lin Xi found it unbelievable, but she could accept it.

In this world, there were Dark Realm monsters, superpower user, Magical Girl… Compared with all that, what was so surprising about artificial humans?

After listening to Shi Yu’s story, Lin Xi only wanted to say one thing:

“Shi Yu, no wonder you never act like a decent human being. Now I finally know why. Turns out you were never human to begin with.”

Shi Yu: “…”

“Once I install this new core and revive at full health, Lin Xi, come with me. Let’s slaughter our way through Shuguang Technology and destroy their laboratory for developing superpower monsters.”