Chapter 18 -18- Cyber Mage
The next morning, before dawn, Yvette was woken up. She opened her eyes drowsily and saw her student sitting on the carpet in the room, with her upper body leaning on the edge of the bed, staring at her with panda eyes, like a cute blonde ghost.
"Good morning, teacher," Rosalyn said.
"...When did you start lying here?"
"It seems like, around four o'clock."
"So early?"
“…I can’t sleep.”
"Well, remember not to lie next to my bed in the future."
"...Okay." Rosaline realized that she might be disliked and made a sound like a wronged puppy.
But no matter how tired she was, Rosalind's mood suddenly became excited when she thought about exploring this magnificent "ancient kingdom of gods".
She diligently brought the dried clothes for the teacher, but heard the doorbell ring.
She opened the door, and the next second, Rosalyn's breathing stopped for a moment - a life-size doll lady stood quietly in the narrow corridor, her porcelain-white skin glowing with a cold light, her ball joints making slight clicking sounds as she saluted, and she was holding two boxes in her hands.
"Welcome to 'Sky Express'. This is your express delivery. I have taken a photo and signed for it. I wish you a happy life. Goodbye." After saying this, the doll lady handed over the item and left, leaving the shocked Rosaline standing there.
"Teacher, teacher, teacher...!" Rosalyn stuttered and screamed, "Just now, there was a human-human puppet! It gave me something! How can that puppet talk?"
"That thing is a piece of clothing I ordered online. I introduced it to you last night. The doll is a 'mechanical golem', a magical mechanical creation. It looks like a human, but it has no soul. It is a dead object that imitates a human."
"It's so magical, it's like something out of a fairy tale..."
After getting the teacher's explanation, Rosalyn closed the door in amazement and opened the box. Inside were the clothes she had chosen last night, one set of black and white simple style for the teacher, and one set of blue and white girlish style for her.
"Let's go." Yvette said after changing.
"Um!"
Soon, under Yvette's guidance, Rosalyn arrived outside the hotel and took a deep breath. The streets here were not clean. Gum and strange advertising cards were stuck to the ground, and the walls on both sides were covered in exaggerated graffiti and suspicious traces accompanied by a foul smell.
But she didn't feel anything about it. She had seen dirtier streets in the earldom, and this little dirt was nothing.
At this moment, all she saw was the novelty of the unknown world. Even the aroma of fried food wafting from the roadside breakfast stall seemed particularly tempting.
"Teacher, where are we going next?" After breakfast, Rosalin, who was in a completely travel-oriented mood, asked expectantly.
"First, go around a few places here and find some ways to make money. If you feel sleepy, you can go back to your room and sleep... In the evening, I'll take you to the city center, which is our 'home' area." Yvette said.
As an experienced person, Yvette's current understanding of the dream fog is to "survive." This means doing nothing, as long as you don't die unexpectedly. Over time, the dream will naturally collapse. To survive, the most urgent thing is to make money. Once you have money, you can naturally purchase a more secure ID card, eliminating the suspicion of murder and illegal intrusion into the police system—even though this is all true.
So last night, in addition to shopping for clothes online, Yvette also went through various local online forums related to Ish City, looking for gray areas. Finally, she spent a little money in several small anonymous channels and bought the specific locations of several "underground trading markets" in the Blackwater District. She planned to go and take a look today to see if there was any work she could do.
Once the money problem is solved, taking her apprentice to the city center to have fun and party will no longer be a 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 the dark circles under her eyes that still hadn't faded, and hummed.
…
The street where Yvette and Rosalyn live is called "Pixel Street". The name sounds interesting, but it actually got its name because the street office here has a unique understanding of the "macroeconomics of additional income distribution", which causes the holographic advertisements here to be always blurrier than other places.
About five kilometers down the street, there's an underground exchange called the "Garbage Dump Black Market," built beneath a garbage dump in a converted air-raid shelter. Many shady transactions take place here, and non-locals are strictly excluded. Without a trusted introducer, entry is denied.
As a newcomer, Yvette certainly couldn't find a local willing to sponsor them, but she still decided to give it a try.
Soon, after getting off the strange-smelling bus, they found themselves at the edge of the Blackwater District. A vast expanse of wasteland began to appear on the roadside. One fenced-off area, piled high with garbage, marked their destination.
The two strong men guarding the garbage dump, one with short hair and the other with a bald head, are nearly two meters tall, and their arms have been modified with prosthetics, making them look very powerful.
The bald man saw Yvette and Rosalyn approaching and immediately came over and scolded them coldly, "Kids, this is not the place for you! Go home!"
Apparently, Yvette and Rosalyn's pretty faces, clean new clothes, and middle school and high school age made the two gatekeepers mistake them for young tourists who had come to the wrong place.
Yvette didn't say anything. She raised her head expressionlessly and looked at the bald strong man. When the other party's impatience reached its peak, she suddenly snapped her fingers.
The next second, four huge red rune rings appeared beside Yvette. A ferocious fire dragon emerged from each rune ring, circling above the girl's head, making her look like a fire angel descending from the sky, majestic and awe-inspiring.
"Cyber Mage?!" This unconventional move made the bald man wake up instantly and took several steps back. The short-haired strong man next to him also changed his expression suddenly.
This is the most dangerous group of people in all the gray areas of the origin civilization, and at the same time, they often have another name, that is, "Rune Hackers"!
"What do you want to do?" After forcing himself to calm down, the bald man immediately moved away from him by more than ten meters and asked vigilantly.
The mechanical prosthetic arms look intimidating, but they are actually just the lowest-level models. Apart from being a little stronger, they have no additional functions. He doesn't want to conflict with the Cyber Mage.
"We want to do some business here, um, but we don't have a guarantor." After removing the magic, Yvette said expressionlessly.
Unexpectedly, the two gatekeepers looked at each other in bewilderment at the answer. Their gray market only provided small businesses, and the people who came here to trade were all low-class people from the neighborhood. How could a dignified cyber mage be interested in the profits from such a place?
"Um... Respected Miss Mage, please wait a moment. We can't make a decision on this matter. We need to inform our boss first..."
Yvette hummed, raised her chin slightly, and signaled the two to hurry up.
(End of this chapter)
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