Chapter 186: Bugs Are for Incineration
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 186: Bugs Are for Incineration
“You’re doing great! That’s my Yohan!”
A voice, loud enough to be embarrassing, echoed through the air. Yohan did his best to ignore it and stared straight ahead. The examiner sitting next to him stifled a laugh and asked.
“Is that your girlfriend?”
“No, we’re married.”
“Ah… so you’re newlyweds?”
“Yes.”
“I’m jealous. That’s the best time.”
With that, the examiner signaled the start of the test. Following the examiner’s instructions, Yohan successfully completed the T-parking and parallel parking sections before immediately heading out for the road test.
A quick glance in the side mirror caught Evangeline, who had used magic, trotting along behind the car. He’d told her to wait quietly, but she just couldn’t resist…
Deciding he needed to finish the test as quickly as possible, Yohan followed all the regulations and completed the road test, ultimately passing with a perfect score.
“You’re very good. You must have learned somewhere.”
“Yes. Well…”
He couldn’t exactly say, I’ve driven a car a bit in another world. They weren’t close enough to joke around, and it would have just made the atmosphere awkward.
After finishing the test with ease, Yohan returned to the testing center. He frowned as he saw Evangeline subtly descend from the sky and link her arm with his.
“Yohan! You passed, right?”
“Teacher. You were watching the whole time.”
“W-what are you talking about? I was right here the whole time.”
“Really?”
As Yohan stared at her intently, Evangeline turned her head, avoiding his gaze. A clear sign of guilt.
He let out a deep sigh at the sight, and Evangeline immediately whipped her head back to look at him.
“O-okay, I’m sorry. So don’t be mad. Please?”
“…Eva, this isn’t the other world. It’s Earth. I don’t know what could happen if you keep slinging magic around like that.”
“H-huh?”
Startled by his sudden use of informal language, Evangeline stared at Yohan, but he didn’t react the way she wanted. He just sighed again and walked past her. Evangeline quickly followed.
To an outsider, it might have looked like he was spoiled, shrugging off such a beautiful woman. But Yohan was firm. If he didn’t strictly forbid them from using magic whenever they pleased, Earth and all of humanity could be in danger.
Yohan headed for the parking lot and looked at the supercar parked there. Before coming to Earth, he had once dreamed of driving a car just like it.
“Yo, you’re here?”
But it wasn’t a dream anymore.
Yohan took the car keys from Beatrice as she got out of the supercar and slid into the driver’s seat. The moment he was in, Evangeline claimed the seat next to him.
Seeing Evangeline quickly hop into the passenger seat, Beatrice started to grumble about how she was supposed to get a ride.
“What about me? What am I supposed to do?”
“Find your own way.”
“…Eva, let me sit on your lap.”
“Eek— No way…”
“Please.”
“Well, if it’s a request from my Yohan…”
Both Evangeline and Beatrice grimaced, clearly hating the idea of touching each other, but they didn’t refuse Yohan’s words.
Yohan glanced over at the two beauties in the passenger seat. There was Evangeline, who was in her late 160s but looked even taller thanks to her long limbs, and on her lap sat the petite, pretty girl in her 140s.
How would this look to other people? he wondered. Would they think Evangeline was his wife and Beatrice was his daughter? Or that they were both his girlfriends?
Either way, he was sure to receive looks full of envy. To others, he must seem to be living a dream.
But Yohan himself knew that wasn’t the reality.
‘A dream-like life, they say.’
It was a living hell.
Vrooooom—!
The 12-cylinder, 1000-horsepower engine roared to life.
In the next moment, the car carrying the three of them shot out of the testing center.
The Witch of Machines.
The one who rules over all machines.
Not even the smallest electronic device could escape this law.
After coming to Earth and tinkering with all sorts of machinery, Makina had a great magical epiphany. She now understood how to use her subordinate magic of machines more effectively.
“Hee hee hee~”
Humming a tune she never would have thought to hum back in the other world, Makina was manipulating a device when she realized something was attempting to hack into an electronic device connected to her.
A mere human dares?
With that thought, Makina immediately used her magic to block the hack. As long as the world of 0s and 1s was governed by machines, it could not escape her grasp.
“Let’s see now—”
Next, she traced it back. Digging in reverse to find out who the hacker was, Makina realized the machine had disconnected from all other machines and was isolated.
For ordinary hackers, this would be the end. There was no way they could track it any further.
“How insolent…”
But that was only for humans. Unlike humans—who didn’t even understand what they were touching and only managed to forcibly use the world of 0s and 1s through a method called machine language—Makina, the Witch of Machines, was a being who ruled over everything subordinate to machines.
In the near-infinite world of electrons, she became a fairy swimming through the sea of information. Riding the waves of wires and radio signals, Makina reached the location of the opponent’s computer and radiated her magic power.
While the humans, who wouldn’t even be able to comprehend what had just happened, were breathing sighs of relief, every computer in their vicinity fell into her hands.
“Who are these guys? National Intelligence… what do they do?”
But her interest soon faded. Makina’s concern wasn’t who they were, but why they had attacked her.
She instantly raided their data server to find the reason and returned without leaving a single trace.
Then, she let out a long sigh.
“What kind of ignorant bastards are these…?”
The reason the unknown entities had broken into her computer was simple. An unidentified incident had occurred nearby—namely, the Orbital Deviation Incident caused by Evangeline.
They had received intelligence that the culprit was in this area and had begun hacking into the computers and smartphones of everyone in the vicinity.
‘Just how many people are in this city…?’
At least several hundred thousand. In the modern era where one smartphone per person was the norm, they would have to hack and check hundreds of thousands of smartphones one by one.
It wasn't just about hacking; they had to check every single one of those smartphones to see if there was any connection to the Orbital Deviation Incident.
That was by no means an easy task. Even for a national organization, it would require an enormous amount of effort and time.
‘…Crazy.’
For a moment, Makina thought of humans as ‘frightening.’ She soon understood why.
The species called human gathered by the hundreds of millions to form a nation, and the nation thus created had become a witch in itself.
The Witch of Society.
A demon wearing the mask of a nation was roaming this age.
“Scary, so scary.”
Beep—.
But Makina casually operated her computer and hacked into their database. With this, they would think they had successfully hacked her computer and would also learn that there were no issues.
It was only a temporary measure. If they—the nation—were truly determined to find the witches, they wouldn’t give up over something so trivial.
In that moment, Makina got a small taste of just how terrifying humanity, a species that would casually do anything and everything it could, truly was.
‘Well, they’re no match for us, though.’
However, this fear was similar to what a human feels when seeing hundreds of bugs gathered together.
It was a sense of horror mixed with physiological revulsion.
And it went without saying that no matter if hundreds or thousands of bugs gathered, they couldn’t harm a human life. It might be a different story if there were thousands of Asian giant hornets, but the humans of this world were less than cockroaches to a witch.
“Ah, if it weren’t for Yohan, I’d do whatever I want.”
The Witch of Machines, who now had a heart, said this as she started rolling her mouse wheel back and forth. Scroll, scroll—. The feeling of it rolling in her palm ignited a fire in her heart.
“No. That’s not it.”
Her mechanical self, back when she had no heart, would probably have followed Yohan’s orders, doing exactly as he said. That would have been the most rational choice for a heartless machine.
But now, the choice she had to make as a witch with a heart was different. Cherish my own heart. That was the human-like thing to do for someone who possessed one.
“These insect bastards—how dare they stick their antennae in my face?”
This was the right way.
Beep.
Makina operated her computer and burrowed back into the computers of the organization that had tried to hack her.
“Let’s see… this should be good.”
In the next moment, her magic power transformed the machinery there.
Manifesting the Machine Demon God [機械魔神] Androisen on the spot, Makina grinned and gave the command.
—Burn everything you see.
“Bugs are for incineration.”