Chapter 52: Effective Astrology
The salty sea breeze whipped across the shoreline, carrying the rhythmic crash of waves against the jagged rocks. Natsume walked the perimeter of her newly acquired island, her boots crunching softly against the sand. She swept her gaze over the untouched landscape, her mind already laying down the foundations of her future empire, ticking off a mental checklist of monumental tasks.
First on the agenda: infrastructure. Now that the land for the Teyvat Organization's base was officially secured, they needed actual buildings. Empty dirt and coastal cliffs would not serve as a headquarters. Once Kaveh finished his current architectural commissions, she planned to drag him out here to draft the blueprints. He would undoubtedly complain about the humidity ruining his hair, but his designs would be flawless.
As for the construction crew, hiring outside contractors was a massive security risk. It would be far safer to rely on those wielding the Geo element. If nothing else, she could simply ask Zhongli to put his back into it. Having the Lord of Geo move a few tons of earth and stone shouldn't be too much of a burden.
Thinking of her companions naturally brought Alhaitham to mind. Natsume pulled her phone from her pocket, her thumb hovering over their brief text exchange. He still replied to her messages with his usual dry efficiency, but she had not seen him in person for quite some time. A knot of worry tightened in her chest. Yesterday's morning paper had featured a massive headline regarding the White Dove Pharmaceutical Research Institute—a facility Alhaitham had recently engaged with for academic exchanges. The building had been reduced to rubble in a massive explosion.
Natsume knew exactly what that blast meant. It was the smokescreen covering Sherry's desperate escape from the Black Organization. She could only hope Alhaitham had kept his distance and avoided getting swept up in the explosive fallout of the scientist's defection.
Second on her list: the Schindler Company. Specifically, their artificial intelligence, Noah's Ark, and the highly classified DNA Tracking System.
Ever since arriving in this world, Natsume had harbored a deep, burning ambition to acquire the Schindler Company's virtual reality technology. The research data behind the Cocoon project was nothing short of revolutionary. A fully immersive, holographic virtual reality game with complete neural accessibility—it was the holy grail of modern technology, a dream countless tech conglomerates bled money trying to achieve.
The boy who developed it, Hiroki Sawada, was a generational genius. He had single-handedly created the DNA Tracking System and a self-aware artificial intelligence before even hitting puberty. When Natsume first investigated the boy's background, reading the cold police reports detailing how Thomas Schindler had imprisoned the child, forcing him into a corner until he leaped from a high-rise building to his death two years ago, a chill of disgust had washed over her. Schindler had squandered a miracle.
Hiroki was gone, but his legacy, Noah's Ark, remained hidden within the company's servers. Natsume remembered the original timeline clearly. At the end of the Cocoon incident, the AI chose to self-destruct, concluding that as long as it existed, greedy humans would hunt it down and weaponize it for their own dark ambitions.
Natsume intended to change the machine's mind.
If she could introduce Noah's Ark to Nahida, the God of Wisdom, the AI's perspective on humanity and its own existence could be gently reshaped. With Nahida acting as a guardian, Noah's Ark would never have to fear being exploited by malicious forces. If she could successfully merge the AI's processing power with the Akasha Terminal, the Teyvat Organization's intelligence network and encrypted communication capabilities would instantly eclipse every intelligence agency on the planet.
There was just one massive hurdle. The Schindler Company was currently at the absolute peak of its power and influence. They would never willingly sell their AI, and the DNA Tracking System was their most heavily guarded corporate secret.
Direct acquisition was impossible, but aggressive investment was not. The Cocoon project was hemorrhaging money in its final development stages. By injecting capital now, one could secure a seat at the table. Noah's Ark was, in many ways, the digital ghost of Hiroki Sawada. The boy had only ever wanted to play a simple game with friends. Natsume was confident that if she could get Nahida into the system to speak with the AI, convincing the lonely program to join the Teyvat Organization would be entirely feasible.
The only real flaw in this grand master plan was that Natsume had not actually drawn Nahida from the system yet.
Without the Dendro Archon, attempting to hack into Noah's Ark would only alert Schindler's security. Fortunately, time was on her side. The Cocoon project had only recently entered its active phase. She would shelve the direct contact plan for now and instruct Ningguang to use her financial weight to buy shares in the project.
Finally, there was the delicate matter of the Black Organization.
Calling them an underground syndicate felt like a massive understatement. They operated with the subtlety of a sledgehammer—murdering politicians, burning down buildings, extorting CEOs. There were even future rumors that Gin would hijack a military-grade Apache helicopter and casually strafe Tokyo Tower with a heavy machine gun. They were practically a terrorist cell.
Yet, Natsume had to respect their science. Their biotechnology division was easily a decade ahead of the rest of the world, perhaps more. They had managed to produce tangible, terrifying results in the fields of cellular rejuvenation and immortality.
Her main system quest still loomed over her: balancing the Red and Black factions of this world. As the Teyvat Organization grew into a formidable gray faction, crossing paths with the Black Organization was inevitable. Establishing a cautious, transactional relationship early on would give her the necessary use to manipulate them later.
Trading for their biotech data would also give her own research and development division a massive head start once the island's laboratories were built. She envisioned taking their terrifying cellular research and diluting it into high-end, anti-aging skincare products. The profit margins would be astronomical.
She sighed, kicking a small pebble into the surf. If only Teyvat's alchemical potions could be mass-produced. Lisa could brew a potion that wiped ten years off a person's face in an afternoon, but the magical ingredients simply did not exist in this world, making commercialization impossible.
Natsume nodded to herself, the sea breeze catching her hair. That was enough planning for one day. The board was set, and she just needed to move the pieces one by one.
While Natsume stood on her desolate island plotting the rise of a shadow empire, Conan Edogawa was far away in Beika, living out his usual routine of stumbling over dead bodies.
In an attempt to enjoy a normal summer vacation, Conan had traveled to the beaches of Izu with Ran Mouri and Sonoko Suzuki. Naturally, the sunny getaway had rapidly devolved into a gruesome murder investigation. Thankfully, Conan had managed to piece the clues together and resolve the case before the body count rose any higher, though Sonoko had suffered a rather severe scare in the process.
However, the terrifying ordeal had come with a massive silver lining for the Suzuki heiress.
During the climax of the incident, when the killer had cornered her, a young man named Makoto Kyogoku had shattered a window, disarmed the culprit with a devastating martial arts kick, and saved her life. The stoic, bruised karate champion had even awkwardly confessed his feelings to her shortly after.
While they had not officially started dating, Sonoko was entirely convinced that Makoto was her destined soulmate. He was the exact heroic prince who would save her by the sea, precisely as Mona's astrology reading had predicted.
Ever since they boarded the train back from Izu, Sonoko had not stopped talking. She leaned over the train table, her eyes sparkling as she grabbed Ran's hands, loudly declaring the absolute, obvious power of Mona's astrological foresight.
Sitting in the window seat, Conan rested his chin on his hand, his expression growing increasingly conflicted as he listened to Sonoko's endless praise.
Her words forced him to recall his own reading with the mysterious astrologer. He hated to admit it, but every single detail Mona had provided had been terrifyingly accurate. She had stated that the men who forced him to take the poison were connected to alcohol. Shortly after that reading, he had literally bumped into a massive man in a black suit at a gaming convention—a man whose codename was Tequila.
The sheer, unscientific impossibility of it all left Conan staring blankly at the passing scenery.
Magic did not exist. Fortune-telling was a scam. The world operated on logic, physics, and evidence. He planned to track down Mona again the first chance he got and demand another reading. He needed to study her methods up close to see if she could replicate the results.
In his heart, Conan absolutely refused to believe in the mystical arts. This had to be a supreme, highly advanced form of deductive reasoning disguised as mysticism. It was exactly like when John Watson first met Sherlock Holmes. Watson had been entirely bewildered when Holmes deduced his military background in Afghanistan from a mere glance. It had seemed like magic to Watson simply because he could not comprehend the rapid, invisible chain of logical deductions Holmes had made.
Conan adjusted his glasses, a determined glint flashing in his eyes.
Yes. That was exactly it. Mona was just an incredibly observant detective hiding behind a crystal ball. He just needed to figure out her trick.
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