Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 70, Section Sixty-Nine: Business
In the western district of Yingchuan City, electrical appliances damaged by the electromagnetic pulse have not yet been restored, and dim holographic images appear and disappear intermittently. Drones weave through the red cordon lines in the sky, but people still appear in the streets and alleys, robbing, stealing, and venting their violence. Yellow steel buoys drift in the water; the night tide has receded, revealing garbage on the shallows, and a smell of rotting grass and dead fish permeates the entire harbor.

The vending machine at the alley entrance was empty, but the dispenser was still turning.

Socrates used his foot to pry open the can and looked across the street.

By 5 p.m. the following day, security personnel were stationed near Fubo, the hexagonal lanterns at the shop entrance were not powered on, and nearby signals were blocked.

For some reason, Suger felt a pang of regret. He glanced around and saw that the corpses on the street had disappeared overnight, leaving only flies searching for the sweet smell of blood in the sweltering air.

"The doctor told you to avoid environments that might trigger your irritation." In the field of vision, Shen Ke's image was crouching on the blue paving stones of the curb. "What, you've developed an attachment to this place?"

“It’s been half a month, after all.” Su Ge was still looking at the blocked shop door. He paused, then added, “I come here every day.”

He said this, but he was thinking about other things. He always felt that Yue Guocheng might have something he wanted. Some of the films rented and sold in this shop were highly metaphorical. Perhaps those metaphors were just the emotional outpourings of the oppressed, or perhaps he could find clues about the organization in those films.

However, all the goods in the store, including those prohibited films, were packed into crates and confiscated by the security bureau.

Suddenly, Shen Ke turned her head to look to the east. Su Ge subconsciously followed her gaze and saw only a wall there. Shen Ke's gaze seemed to be fixed on something much further away.

"Interesting," she murmured to herself, then got up and walked away. "Come with me."

Su Ge didn't understand her meaning, hesitated for a moment, and followed behind Shen Ke. Drones occasionally landed from the sky to check the citizenship of pedestrians. Su Ge crossed an apartment building and turned into a dark alley. Ahead was the entrance to an underground shopping mall, where the malfunctioning fire-fighting equipment was still dripping water.

He held onto the handrail, stepped off the out-of-service elevator, and ripples spread out beneath his feet.

……

The puddles reflected the flashing neon lights and the white ripples of batik on the hem of the skirt. The next moment, these reflections were shattered by the wooden clogs, splashing into water droplets.

The woman's face was flushed, and a few strands of hair fell down her neat bun. She fled into the underpass in a panic. A cement wall blocked the end of the passage, and next to it was a prosthetic smuggling shop with a dental clinic sign.

The woman quickly turned around, but the man's figure had already blocked the exit. He scrutinized the woman as if he were sizing up prey.

Above the dental clinic, a still-operating camera watched the scene unfold.

The image was synchronized into Suger's field of vision.

Su Ge sized up the woman. He remembered that this woman often appeared in Yue Guocheng's shop dressed in classical attire, serving tea and water, and sometimes she would be led into a room by customers—she was a robot waitress from the floating waves.

Clearly, she escaped the security bureau's sweep, but other troubles followed.

"What...what do you want?"

The woman stared at the man, then took two steps back, her voice trembling. Her reaction was incredibly realistic, thanks to her emotional processing module, which helped her better serve her customers—in every sense of the word.

The man's gaze swept over her, and she instinctively covered her chest with her collar, a gesture that made his eyes linger on her exposed area for a couple more seconds. He felt a surge of desire, which he quickly suppressed. He wouldn't mind going all the way with her, but he knew what was important.

“Your boss is in jail,” he said, “but someone has to take over his business, don’t you think?”

The woman paused for a moment, looking bewildered.

"Still pretending, huh? You think I don't know his background?" He walked slowly toward the woman, pinched her cheek, and pressed her skin with his metallic fingers. "He's finished. You should think about yourself too. How about you work for me from now on?"

"I don't know..." The woman's chest heaved nervously, "I don't know..."

"He controls all the smuggling routes around here, didn't you know?" The man's lips curled into a vicious smile. "I've bought quite a few 'good stuff' from him. Are you really going to pretend with me? How about I modify it for you..."

His gaze lingered on her fair skin, scrutinizing every inch.

"I'll add tens of thousands more tactile units to you, and increase your sensitivity by a hundred or a thousand times. If a feather falls on you, it will hurt more than a knife scraping you. If you just blow hot air on me, it will burn me more than fire."

The man brought his face close to the woman's ear and blew a breath. The woman's body trembled, and the man laughed triumphantly.

"So, is this what you want? You think this is too harsh, right? Oh, this is illegal. By the way, your boss didn't register you for citizenship, did he? You have no human rights, so I can do whatever I want to you." "I really didn't know... really..."

The woman looked flustered. The man frowned and impatiently released her face. She took two steps back, leaning against the wall. He then took out another chip and inserted it into the data interface hidden under her scalp.

A moment later, seemingly unable to retrieve the information he wanted, the man pulled out the chip in disappointment and cursed angrily.

He didn't get what he wanted, and he didn't want to leave empty-handed.

He saw the finger marks on her face, his gaze drifting downwards, disappearing into the depths of her collar.

A few seconds passed.

“Take off your clothes,” he said.

Not far away, Suger frowned.

"Are you sure you want to meddle?" Shen Ke's image stepped on the puddles, but there wasn't a ripple, as if it were floating on the water.

Socrates took out the magazine, glanced at it, then pushed it back and headed towards the emergency exit. At this moment, Shen Ke said, "She doesn't have a complete neural network, nor does she have citizenship. To put it bluntly, she only looks like a person on the outside. In reality, she's just a sex doll."

"So, you sent me here just to watch the live broadcast?"

Shen Ke glanced at Su Ge and smiled.

"What I mean is, she doesn't want anyone meddling in her affairs either."

In the scene, the woman is embracing the man, as if she were the one initiating the relationship.

Socrates remained silent; he remembered that guests often brought this waitress into their rooms.

Water slid down the signboard and into puddles, the dripping sound like the ticking of a second hand.

The low, panting groans came from a dozen meters away, growing louder and louder.

Suger looked at the painting in his field of vision. The woman was leaning against the wall, her arms wrapped around the man's neck, and she gently twisted it.

The faint glow of a corona, the hissing sound like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.

The man slumped to his knees, then slid face down against the wall.

The woman lowered her legs and pushed aside the man's corpse.

She picked up her clothes from the ground, put them on, and walked towards the exit. Her flushed face and all expression vanished without a trace, as if nothing had happened.

“Let’s go, follow them,” Shen Ke said.

When Sug came to his senses, he realized he was covered in a cold sweat.

The woman moved through the underground area, and twenty minutes later, she entered an underground warehouse.

A row of drone entrances is located on the outer wall of the warehouse.

"Not bad." Behind a load-bearing pillar not far away, Shen Ke looked around the underground warehouse. "We made a fortune this time."

“What is this for?” Sog asked.

“Smuggling,” she said. “It’s an underground printing plant.”

(End of this chapter)