The battle on Panlong Street was explosively popular.
Since there was no livestream, a huge number of people were online offering high prices for a battle video.
This was a Great Witch’s fight, after all. Very precious.
If they could learn something, that would be a huge gain.
Cheng Cheng stared at the forum posts begging for videos at high prices, her eyes sparkling.
She looked at the footage on her screen, and her merchant instincts surged.
But she felt the three of them—Su Ling, Su Yao, and Keke—staring at her with disdain, and she scratched her head sheepishly.
“Money’s money. Nothing shameful about it.”
“Heh.”
Keke let out a cold laugh.
She had this swindler figured out.
“Oh well, it’s all over now. Let’s head back inside.”
Cheng Cheng pushed them along, chatting and laughing as they entered the shop.
But when they saw the bare interior, the four of them were dumbfounded.
Seriously, ladies?
Where’s the stuff?
Not even a stool left behind?
“No!”
Cheng Cheng almost blacked out from the shock.
Su Ling was speechless.
These witches really did flock together—taking advantage of small gains like this.
“I’m calling the cops! Calling the cops! I want to report this!”
Cheng Cheng’s eyes turned red.
Even though tables and chairs weren’t worth much, in her heart, losing something that originally belonged to her was worse than death.
“Wake up. There are no police here, only the Student Council.”
Keke was gloating.
That swindler finally got what she deserved.
“Look, there’s Student Council right outside. You can tell them.”
Outside, Student Council members occasionally walked by.
They were staff cleaning up the scene.
Cheng Cheng immediately wilted.
She’d have to be crazy to report this to those people who’d eat you alive.
“Forget it, forget it. It’s just some tables and chairs.”
Cheng Cheng had to swallow her pride.
But she kept muttering resentfully.
That was good for Su Ling, though.
Without the facilities, Cheng Cheng simply gave Su Ling and the other two the day off.
They’d reopen tomorrow when the new furniture arrived.
Su Ling cheered.
Nothing was better than a day off.
She grabbed the dazed Su Yao, said goodbye to Cheng Cheng and Keke, and walked out.
On the street, besides Student Council members, there were some students who had come to watch the excitement.
They held up smartphones and kept talking to the screens—probably small-time streamers trying to leech off the hype.
“What’s wrong? Not happy about the day off?”
Su Ling looked at Su Yao’s blank expression and couldn’t help asking.
They had reached the cordon on New Century Street.
“No… it’s just… my heart feels so heavy…”
Su Yao clutched her chest, her beautiful face filled with confusion and unease.
“Lingling, can you take me… to see it? That bug…”
Su Ling’s scalp crawled at those words.
She felt several gazes from outside the cordon sweep over them.
Putting on a smile, she quickly pulled Su Yao into a secluded corner.
“My little darling, why would you want to go somewhere like that?”
“I just feel like… I seemed to recognize that Zerg…”
Su Yao lowered her head and whispered.
It was just a feeling.
In her memory, she never seemed to have any connection with Zerg.
Except for Bai Miao.
Su Ling fell silent.
Su Yao’s words stirred up a question she had been deliberately avoiding.
Who exactly was Su Yao?
Bai Wei was a witch—almost certainly.
Miao Miao was a Zerg—she had seen it with her own eyes.
That left a very intriguing puzzle.
Unless Bai Wei had an affair with a Zerg and gave birth to Miao Miao, there was no other explanation.
If Bai Wei didn’t cheat, then there was only one possibility left.
Su Yao was a Zerg.
Even very likely a member of the royal family.
After all, Su Yao had undergone genetic testing more than once, and every time the result showed she was a witch.
Su Ling used to think that since the test said Su Yao was a witch, there shouldn’t be a problem.
But the problem was that the mimicry of some Zerg royalty could completely fool genetic testing.
And Su Ling remembered the occasional dreams she had before.
A terrifying guess she had always deliberately avoided surged in her mind.
She might be a Zerg too.
“Let’s go. This has nothing to do with us.”
Su Ling grabbed Su Yao’s wrist and resolutely stepped outside the cordon.
Whether she was a Zerg or not, she just wanted to live well now.
If she really was a Zerg, going to the scene with Su Yao now—where there were three Great Witches—who knew if she’d be recognized.
If she was identified as a Zerg…
The image of that Zerg being shattered by Zi Tong’s spear flashed through her mind.
Su Ling’s body trembled.
Su Yao kept her head down, tears in her eyes.
But she didn’t insist on going to the scene.
She didn’t want to drag Su Ling down.
They walked home in silence.
Only when they reached the door did Su Ling turn and pull Su Yao tightly into her arms.
“Mom, don’t think about it anymore.”
“I’m scared. I’m really scared.”
“I’ve already lost Miao Miao. I don’t want to lose you too.”
“Forget it. Just forget this whole thing.”
Her voice carried a hint of tears.
How could she not be afraid?
The person in her arms was her only family in this world.
She was terrified of Miao Miao’s tragedy repeating itself.
Su Yao buried her face in Su Ling’s neck and softly hummed in agreement.
She knew. She knew everything.
But that Zerg seemed truly special.
Special enough that she couldn’t help wanting to go see it one last time.
“Thump!”
Suddenly, a sound came from behind them.
They quickly parted, faces flushed.
It was the neighbor, Tao Tao.
“Haha, go on, I was just passing by.”
Tao Tao picked up the bag she had dropped, her face red as she hurried inside.
Ah, it was clearly a mother-daughter moment, so why did it feel so awkward?
Damn it, Tao Tao, you pervert, what is wrong with your brain!
Su Ling was a bit embarrassed too.
She didn’t even dare look at Su Yao.
She pulled out the key, turning her back to Su Yao.
“Mom, let’s go home.”
“Mm.”
—
“Can you extract the memories?”
“No. Can’t extract any consciousness at all. Even with the Time Reversal Device, we couldn’t pull anything useful.”
Student Council.
Underground Research Institute.
The bright, spacious research institute was filled with countless nutrient tanks, each containing a piece of the corpse—different sizes.
These were the remains of A996, just brought in from the battlefield.
Minister of Law Enforcement Jian Yan listened to the researcher’s report, her brows furrowed.
She had hoped to extract some information about the Zerg to gain an edge in the Student Council President election.
“This is a good thing, though.”
Hu Mei interrupted from the side.
Jian Yan turned.
“Oh, Minister—if there’s no consciousness at all, that means this is just an empty shell. It can be made into a battle puppet.”
Hu Mei walked up to a nutrient tank. The blue-green nutrient solution reflected her sly smile.
“This is the corpse of a Third Shell after all. Made into a battle puppet, it should at least be at the level of a peak Transcendent Witch, right?”
And the biggest problem with current puppet technology was the difficulty of dealing with residual consciousness.
More than once, puppets ordered to kill someone close to their former owner had gone berserk due to lingering will, eventually killing their master.
That news wasn’t new.
Now that this Zerg had burned away its own consciousness, it was the ideal puppet material.
Besides, the Astral Grand Competition was coming up. The only requirement was that participants couldn’t exceed the level of a Great Witch.
A puppet refined from this Zerg corpse would perfectly meet the criteria.
Jian Yan’s eyes lit up at these words.
She patted Hu Mei on the shoulder and laughed heartily.
“Haha, you really are a little fox. How does that brain of yours work? So clever, haha!”
“Hehe, still thanks to the Minister’s guidance.”
“Haha, when I become President, you’ll be the Minister of Law Enforcement.”
“Oh my, I’ll gladly accept~”
Inside the nutrient tank, the half-remaining skull stared with its scarlet, unfocused pupils at the two people flattering each other.
No one noticed that on the large screen, the straight line monitoring consciousness suddenly pulsed by a single pixel.