City ​​of Witches 926

Chapter 926 – #201_Mascot Angel(4)

#920

1.
Siwoo and his group had a reason to obtain the ‘sluice gate,’ and the Angels had a reason to protect the city while avoiding unnecessary fights.

Their mutual interests aligned, leading to a three-question exchange before negotiations.

It was necessary to be as cautious as possible.
Expose minimal information to the enemy while extracting as much information as possible in return.

The fact that they were still enemies had not changed.

To increase the credibility of the questions and answers, Eloa’s contract was used.
It was the same magic that Eloa had used to conduct the three-question exchange with Siwoo.

Three characters floated above each of their heads.

“The reliability and harmfulness of the magic have been determined. Verification complete.”

Siwoo was the one who initiated the conversation.
It seemed that Siwoo was more suitable for this kind of trickery than the rigid Eloa or Rinne.

“Okay, what are you Angels?”
“‘Angels’ are the positroids that protect Daejeon Metropolitan City. Clones are mass-produced based on the 21st-tier ‘Witch of Gwanghui.’ They are models that have only their brains and nervous systems transplanted into full-body prosthetics. The current number of Angels remaining in the city is 322,392. This is a force calculated to be able to face 16 22nd-tier witches according to international standards.”

Like Wingwing, whom they had met at the museum, they were quite forthcoming with answers to the enemy.
Perhaps it was a subtle recommendation to surrender without any foolish thoughts, given the overwhelming difference in power.

“The answer has been completed. It is this unit’s turn. Who are you?”

It was a similar question to the one Siwoo had asked.
However, the answer was much simpler.

“I’m Shin Siwoo, this is Eloa, and this is Rinne. As you can see, we’re all great witches.”
“……”

After waiting for a long time, the Angel noticed that one of the characters above Siwoo’s head had disappeared, and only then did it realize that its opportunity to answer had been wasted.

“The answer is not equivalent to the information provided by this unit.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to exchange equal information.”
“……”

It was a petty and shallow trick, but strictly speaking, it was AA-000’s fault for answering so readily without any calculation.
AA-000, who had been tricked by a simple ploy, pondered for a while without showing any signs of annoyance and continued to speak.

“I will receive the second question.”
“Why are you attacking us? You said your purpose was to protect the city. We don’t have any intention of attacking this city. To correct a misunderstanding, the witches who attacked the positroids are our enemies.”

Although there were many things about this city that he didn’t like, he had no intention of destroying it all.
He was satisfied with controlling the sluice gate to regulate the actions of the homunculi.

If the destruction of the positroids by Urshla and Priscilla was the beginning of all this, it might be possible to obtain the sluice gate with the cooperation of the Angels.

Wasn’t the enemy of an enemy an ally?

However, the Angel was resolute.

“All witches are potential enemies of humans. The fact that witches have left the containment area and infiltrated the city is a clear act of provocation. I will verify the truth of the question derived from this. Is it true that you are hostile to the witches who attacked the positroids?”

“They are enemies with whom we cannot even consider an alliance.”
“Confirmed. Next, this unit will ask the final question first.”

Artificial, bright red eyes stared straight at Siwoo.

“This unit predicts that Daejeon City has been caught up in the Creation Witch’s Ark Project. Are you a witch from ‘another world’?”
“We also recently learned about the Ark… I guess that prediction is probably correct.”
“……”

AA-000 stood there, speechless, as if in shock.

“Hey.”

She, who had been staring into the void, opened her mouth.

“Accessing the management server. It took time to modify the museum DB. With this, the citizens of Daejeon Metropolitan City will be provided with more accurate historical knowledge.”

It didn’t seem like she was particularly shocked.
But her actions were quite bizarre.

Daejeon was caught up in the Ark, and as a result, the humans in the city disappeared.
In other words, a museum for humans was not particularly meaningful.

Nevertheless, the Angel modified the museum’s data.

This was a contradictory and worthless action.
Therefore, this series of actions highlighted what the ‘Angels’ were.

She was just a machine that carried out the tasks assigned to her.

Perhaps she had been operating to carry out the order to protect the city for a very long time since the moment the city became an ‘Ark’ and entered a separate world line.

“I will receive the last question.”
“Do you know about the sluice gate?”
“Yes, sluice gates are used to control water levels in harbors, rivers, canals, etc….”
“Not that sluice gate. There should be an artifact called a ‘sluice gate’ left by the Creation Witch in this city.”

Blink, blink.
The Angel, blinking as if a machine was loading, replied.

“The exact name is unknown. However, there is an artifact in this city that is presumed to be the ‘sluice gate’ left by the Creation Witch.”

As the Angel extended her hand, a holographic image appeared above it.
A celestial sphere showing the movement of constellations, the size of a palm.

Its slow rotation was identical to the appearance of the sluice gate that had appeared in the prophecy.

The three-question exchange was over, and each had obtained the information they wanted.
Now it was time for negotiations.

“Yeah, that’s it. That’s why we came here. If we can just get that, we’ll disappear quietly without any unnecessary fighting. If you want anything else, feel free to ask. We’ll cooperate as much as possible.”

It was then, as they were feeling hopeful about the smoother-than-expected conversation.

“Impossible.”

The tension in the temporary truce was heightened once again.
The Angel group, which had only formed a siege, was once again preparing for battle.

“The semi-permanent magic power generation device embedded in the artifact is a major component in the mass production of Angels.”

“The act of seizing the artifact will permanently damage the city’s right to self-defense.”

“You are witches, and you are enemies of the city.”

AA-000 delivered an ultimatum with a blank expression that showed no sign of regret.

“The purge will be resumed.”

2.
The Whisper Witch, Lilith, had a special power.

It was the ability to read the cause and effect of history.
History meant the past, and reading cause and effect meant being able to know the inner workings of things in detail.

If Keter saw an unstable future, Lilith saw a confirmed past.
If Keter desired order, Lilith desired chaos from the very beginning.

Thus, the two were bound to be in conflict from the start.

In any case, because Lilith possessed this ability, she was able to read the history of a world she did not know as soon as she entered this city.

It was a ridiculous thing.

That the Creation Witch, whom all witches praised so highly, was actually a loser who had sensed defeat and fled.
That such an astonishing military force was lurking in such a small city.

Lilith’s eyes saw it.

The city designated as the Ark, Daejeon Metropolitan City.

At that time, even the Creation Witch, who had obtained power close to that of a god at the 30th tier, could not have allowed the living beings in this city to withstand the shock of the dimensional leap.

All living things in the city, including humans, had their very existence extinguished.
The positroids were no exception.

How much time had passed?

The defective product disposal area of the positroid production plant.

A positroid rose to its feet.
It was AA-000, an individual who was supposed to be sent to the incinerator before even opening its eyes because it was found to be defective during production.

All positroids had electrodes implanted in their cerebral cortex.
Since they were born from witches, their emotions were removed so that they would only carry out the given orders.

Therefore, AA-000, who was born in a junkyard, did not feel any emotion even when seeing the corpses of her sisters scattered around like broken machines.

She simply reported the error to the general production management building as programmed.

“AA-000 is scheduled for disposal. An error occurred during the disposal process, so a payment is required to ensure proper disposal.”

AA-000 returned to the disposal area and sat on the conveyor belt for almost three days.

However, the conveyor belt did not restart, and AA-000 was not disassembled and recycled.
It was only natural since the world had lost the managers who would approve the payment.

Only then did AA-000 step out of the production building.

She checked the basic protocols.
After confirming her main functions and purpose, AA-000 patrolled the city.
She soon realized that all the citizens and positroids had been annihilated.

If things continued like this, they would not be able to respond to the witches’ invasion.
They would not be able to protect the city.
Someone had to normalize the city.
The only ‘someone’ who could remain in this city and act independently was AA-000.

AA-000 moved according to her mission.

The most urgent thing was to secure at least a minimum level of defense.
She moved to restart the positroid production plant, which had been shut down due to the safety mechanism being activated when the managers disappeared all at once.

What was needed was magic power, electricity, and materials necessary for clone cultivation and the production of mechanical prosthetics.

Electricity was drawn from the outskirts of the city, where the residents had disappeared.
The items needed for clone cultivation were, at most, frozen fertilized eggs and culture solution, so they were not bulky.
There was enough stored in the inventory warehouse.

Materials for making prosthetics were recycled from various items that were torn from the northern residential area.

The biggest problem was magic power.

Daejeon Metropolitan City was receiving 85% of the magic power consumed in the city from other cities.

In the early stages of production, they used the magic power that went into managing city facilities and drew from their own generators, but it was quickly depleted as it consumed a huge amount of magic power.

While searching for a solution, she found an artifact sleeping under the city’s tallest ‘City Hall Tower.’
It was a celestial sphere-shaped ‘sluice gate.’

Although she could not grasp its exact function, it contained a semi-permanent power plant that was difficult to replicate even with modern magic engineering technology.
AA-000 was able to use it to continuously mass-produce positroids.

It was a very brief summary, but it was by no means easy for a mass-produced positroid like AA-000 to get this far.

It took a long time, as long as 1,000 years, from the time she opened her eyes to securing the sluice gate.

Since then, AA-000 had acquired the authority of the city’s administrator and had been managing the city.

She deployed cleaning drones to clean the streets as if they were new and repeatedly carried out repairs.
She had maintained an environment where citizens or travelers could live immediately if they returned.
That is, ever since the Creation Witch created the Ark and fled.

Only then could Lilith understand why impurities like the Angels were mixed into the ‘Ark.’

This Ark was an arrangement prepared for witches, and the Angels, on the other hand, were beings hostile to witches.
When you think about it, they were completely incompatible.

‘AA-000’ was not an arrangement originally prepared by the Creation Witch, but a variable that had sprung up from a pile of trash.

Lilith carefully examined history.

The city, which still boasted its splendor after overcoming the passage of time.
And the flickering in AA-000’s red eyes as she looked down at the city.

“This seems to be worth exploiting.”

Lilith smiled.