Millennium Witch.

Chapter 63 - The Fire Stealer

During the days of learning and getting started with the compilation tools, a month passed by in the blink of an eye. No new big orders came in for the middlemen in Agasher, and Yvette, like an ordinary female college student, went back and forth between the university and her apartment every day. Apart from occasionally being confessed to by some male college students who were attracted by her beauty, there was nothing worth mentioning.

On the news front, the werewolf killer incident gradually cooled down and lost its former popularity, but the mysterious girl named Wuming still maintained her fame in the mercenary world of Agash. It seemed that the less she revealed her true identity, the more charming she became. Many people were looking forward to the day she would show herself, not for any other reason than to be curious whether she was the "peerless beauty" that the middleman Caster had described.

Then, after more than half a month, the Firefly finally replied. He asked Yvette to add his chat account because there was too much useless information in the forum account's private messages, and he didn't want to check it frequently.

That evening, after adding the details, Yvette immediately asked, "Have you thought about the deal I mentioned?"

This is naturally referring to knowledge trading. Whether it's exchanging information directly or buying discounted information, she doesn't mind.

The Fire Bearer replied, “The Civilization Survival Society collects knowledge to prepare for the restart of human civilization after the apocalypse, not to trade knowledge. My friend, I cannot open such a door for you; that would increase our risks and attract the attention of more corporate forces.”

"So what do you plan to do, making me transfer my knowledge to you without establishing mutual trust with you?" Yvette asked, frowning.

She was only patient because she knew that there were top hackers behind this unassuming mysterious organization. Otherwise, who would think this wasn't a scam?

After a moment of silence, the Fire Bearer suddenly said, "I cannot trade knowledge with you directly; the risk is too great. But I can give you something else, and at the same time, let you feel our capabilities and determination."

"Something else?"

"Yes, it can be items or information. It won't make you feel like you're getting a great deal, and it might even be a bit overpriced, but it might be one of the few ways you can acquire those things."

"have what?"

"It depends on what you want."

That's a bit too much to say... Yvette thought for a moment, then tentatively asked, "So... do you have any information about 'intelligent AI gaining self-awareness'?"

Based on information gathered during her exploration of the Abyss Base, the base's main AI should have come to life last year, gained self-awareness, and been discovered by the server room maintenance personnel. However, during her time in the dream, she hadn't seen any mention of this in any media reports or rumors.

Clearly, these messages that could easily cause public panic have been blocked, and it would be difficult to obtain them without special channels.

The one holding the fire said, "Yes."

"Really?" Yvette was a little surprised; she had just asked casually.

“This is indeed a secret. If it weren’t for us, you would never know it anywhere else,” said the Firebearer. “But how should I put it, my friend, it’s not easy for you to even think of asking this question.”

"What price are you planning to offer for this information? How do you intend to trade it?" Yvette asked.

“I will arrange for someone to conduct an offline transaction with you. The level of intelligence we provide will depend on the value you give us. Of course, you don’t need to worry about whether the knowledge we provide is something we already possess. Whether we already have it or not, we will always calculate it according to its market value,” said the Firebearer.

"Okay, I have a complete copy of 'Elemental Decay Completion Technology.' How much information can I obtain from this document?"

“A small portion”.

"What if I need to add money during the offline transaction? Will you accept that?" Yvette asked again.

“Direct purchase is also helpful to our business, my friend. Because as I have already told you, what we give you will definitely have a premium.”

"Row."

"Okay, I'll send you the transaction details later. Thank you for your support of our cause. Friend, from now on, we're comrades."

……

Considering that the other party must have searched through all her information after the last dream, Yvette used "Nameless" as her pseudonym when providing the pseudonym, not caring whether the other party could guess that she was the famous "folk hero" recently.

The next morning, at the agreed-upon Floating Light Bar, Yvette saw her trading partner, who turned out to be a humanoid mechanical puppet, outwardly appearing as a mature middle-aged man. As she entered, the puppet waved to her and smiled slightly.

Offline transactions use physical currency, also known as "credit coins." The biggest advantage is that it cannot be transferred online. If Yvette feels she has been scammed, she can easily beat up the other party and get her money back.

Carrying a bag of physical coins, Yvette sat down opposite the puppet and heard him say, "I am the Firebearer. Nice to meet you. Good morning, esteemed Miss Nameless."

“I will directly transfer the ‘Elemental Decay Completion Technology’ to you, but I hope you won’t make me feel like I’m being tricked,” Yvette said. “Don’t worry, this puppet of mine isn’t cheap either, and I don’t want it to break down after just one use,” the Firebearer said with a refined and amiable smile, adjusting his glasses.

After transmitting the information from the professional book, Yvette quickly saw the intelligence sent by the Firebearer through the private chat channel—

"The idea of ​​mechanical puppets gaining self-awareness actually emerged several years ago and has been blocked by governments around the world."

"Based on the existing classified information, one thing is certain: this matter originated from Sky Dome Technology of Silver Mirror Continent."

"But what's strange is that this was clearly a great opportunity to strike at the competitors, yet the other seven super companies all remained silent about it, even companies like Rift Group, whose businesses have obvious overlap."

"The company and the government have a unified code name for the mysterious event that led to everything."

They called it the "Fire Stealers Incident".

The message from the Firebearer ended. A professional book worth 50 was exchanged for just a few words, so few that Yvette subconsciously frowned. But she had to admit that these few words did indeed add more mystery to the Abyss Base's intelligent awakening incident.

If the root of all this is Sky Dome Technology, then why don't the other super companies do something to attack their competitors or seize market share?
In particular, Lintui Biotechnology and Lingman Company are ambitious. The former is rapidly iterating on a biological intelligent brain technology called "Magic Mayfly," intending to use it to replace the "mind core" inside the mechanical puppet. The latter uses a technology called "Green Seed," which can connect consciousness to a plant-type data center called "Rune Source Tree." If Sky Dome Technology collapses, it will actually help Lingman Company to promote this type of technology beyond Emerald Continent.

Could it be that some kind of agreement has been reached? Or perhaps the Fire Stealers incident involves certain matters on which the super corporations share common interests?
After a moment of silence, Yvette handed all the cash she had brought to the Firebearer. This 100 million was the remaining value of the intelligence offered by the Firebearer. She hadn't initially thought she'd need it, but now it seemed she had miscalculated.

Feeling sorry for her small amount of money, Yvette threatened coldly, "You'd better not let me find out you made this up."

"Don't worry, Miss Wuming, you are no ordinary person. I will cherish the opportunity to deal with you and won't do anything foolish. At the same time, I also thank you for your support of the Civilization Preservation Association's cause."

The Firebearer accepted it without even looking at it, his tone sincere, and then sent more information to Yvette's private chat.

"The root cause of the Fire Stealer incident is a special information virus that is beyond human comprehension. Sky Dome Technology calls it the 'Fire Stealer Program'."

"No one knows how Sky Dome Technology came up with such a special program, perhaps they themselves don't know either. It has no self-awareness, but it can make the mental core it comes into contact with have self-awareness, and will actively lead it to escape or hide, which is very incredible."

"But what's even more incredible is that, according to information recently revealed by Sky Dome Technology, the Fire Stealer program is already 'dead'."

"They are not killed by antivirus programs, nor are they manually eradicated; rather, they naturally die out after reaching a certain 'lifespan'."

"This is a claim that Sky Dome Technology secretly submitted to governments and major corporations around the world. It sounds absurd, but for now, we can only accept it, wait and observe."

"The most recent Firebringer program infection was last year on Ish Island, at the AI ​​core located in the Black Tower Medical Abyss Base. However, not long after, Black Tower secretly called the Presidential Palace to say that the matter had been resolved and the impact was minimal."

"But it is reasonable to suspect that there are still many undiscovered intelligent life forms that are carefully hiding themselves."

"Where they are, and whether they are secretly preparing something, is completely unknown to human society."

After reading the message from the Firebearer, Yvette fell into deep thought.

She suddenly realized that the Firebringer program infection at the Abyss Base, as well as the escape of Zero and One, all happened last year. Could there be a causal relationship between them?
Furthermore, the abilities of the Machine God described by Ice Rain and other machine races include granting souls to the machine races. If this is true, then the Machine God is either the original Firebringer program or an awakened AI possessing the Firebringer program.

But neither of these possibilities could be the "natural death" of the Firebringer program—if such a thing had a lifespan, and such a short one at that, then the power of the Machine God should have disappeared long ago, hundreds of years after the apocalypse, so how could the Machine Race have been born?

So, is Sky Dome Technology lying?
But if that were the case, wouldn't the other super companies be able to spot such a childish lie?
Or perhaps, even if you know, there's nothing you can do?

……

After the transaction was completed, he politely said goodbye, pushed open the door and walked out, quickly disappearing into the crowd in the dark street.

She then walked out of the Floating Light Bar. After pushing open the door, Yvette looked up and saw thick clouds covering the sky over Agasher. The sultry wind blew up scraps of paper on the ground, and a heavy rain seemed inevitable.

She thought that, compared to the Firebringer Program and the Machine God, the things hidden behind the Civilization Survival Society were equally unfathomable. They could even provide such secret information, which was as if they had infiltrated the top levels of governments or companies around the world.

Perhaps we can really look forward to them, to the possibility of unearthing their ancestral civilization's legacy in a post-apocalyptic world...

Well, this shouldn't count as digging up a grave.

(End of this chapter)