The night in Jiangnan City remained just as dazzling, the riot of neon lights and red lanterns blurring the eyes of passersby, while colorful signs and neon tried hard to trace the outlines of towering skyscrapers.
Amidst this glow, the girl quietly returned to the darkest corner of the city.
Power supply in the Lower District was a huge headache.
Beyond the complexity of wiring and the costs of reconstruction, many people were deterred by the exorbitant electricity bills.
But although the residents here struggled financially, their hands-on skills were top-notch.
Just look at the chaotic tangle of wires crisscrossing the utility poles.
One household’s electricity was stolen by ten others.
Electricians who had self-taught their skills just to steal power had become the most sought-after professionals in the Lower District.
Such a rough and unrestrained wiring layout… it was already a miracle that there were no explosions or fires.
The fact that these “professional” electricians and nearby families avoided disaster was pure luck.
Of course, this small contribution was partly thanks to Yijinmo.
She certainly didn’t want to come home one day to find her little room burned to ashes.
But that was as far as she went; as for some of the more frequent and bizarre power outages, she was powerless.
She opened the door, and the room was pitch black.
As a lightning-type “weirdo,” if she obediently paid the electricity bill, wouldn’t that be a huge embarrassment for all the electric-type protagonists—especially the loli ones?
Just as she was about to raise her hand and generate electricity, the sudden face in the flickering flame startled her.
“W-what the hell, a ghost!!”
Crackle crackle!!
The room lit up, and the “ghost” was electrocuted, hair standing on end, collapsing to the floor.
By the light, Yijinmo finally saw who had scared her.
“Gangci-chan… why are you so scary…”
The silver-haired girl lay sprawled on the floor, her legs twitching occasionally.
The candle in her hand had fallen and gone out.
“Boss Lightning, you’re back.”
“There’s no other choice; there’s no electricity here at night, so we had to make do with a few candles.”
Chunfeng finally popped her head out of the kitchen to explain.
“…Ah haha, I forgot about that…”
Embarrassed, Yijinmo could only laugh it off.
“I’ll leave some electricity for you guys next time I go out.”
Feeling a bit guilty, she stepped over Gangci-chan’s sprawled body and moved to the sofa, gently lowering the woman’s back down.
Chunfeng dragged Gangci aside to make sure her sister wasn’t in the way before joining them.
“This is…?”
“A new ‘weirdo,’ but her situation is special. I’ve pretty much figured out which mercenary company has been hunting you all.”
“Which company?”
“Raijin… They specialize in biological sciences. Not long ago, their stock price plummeted, putting them in crisis. But just an hour ago, they unveiled a technology that many people would scramble to get.”
“The Controlled Aberration System—it basically means using this technology to manipulate us aberrations for their own purposes.”
Yijinmo tapped the woman’s head as she continued, “I think they’ve reached the application stage. Although there are still issues, it’s no longer just theory; it’s become reality.”
Listening to their leader’s explanation, Chunfeng raised her hand like a good student.
“Boss Lightning, if what you’re saying is true, then can they also control ordinary people… even magical girls?”
Although aberrations were shunned by society, their individual strength was still formidable and posed many uncontrollable risks.
On the other hand, if their goal was simply to demonstrate their ability to control others, wouldn’t it be safer and more practical to experiment on those drifting at society’s bottom, unnoticed and disregarded?
“I don’t think that’s possible.”
“Huh?”
Yijinmo sat down, arms crossed, her expression serious.
“At first, I thought their technology worked by using electrical currents to tamper with the brain’s consciousness, ultimately forcing a person to obey them…”
“But I’ve realized that guess is probably wrong.”
“If they could do that, why wouldn’t they just focus on medical science? Conquering Alzheimer’s alone would net Raijin Company enough money to last a lifetime.”
“Then why would they be so hellbent on fighting aberrations? It can’t just be because they’re bored.”
Following that logic, it’s not hard to guess the biggest difference between aberrations and ordinary humans… and magical girls.
“Evil energy!?”
“Yes.”
Yijinmo confirmed Chunfeng’s startled exclamation.
“I think… they’re not controlling the brain, but the evil energy inside aberrations!”
The minds of flame aberrations were a complete mess.
Even the best doctors were powerless.
If the brain control theory was flawed from the start, then evil energy was the only remaining possibility.
Evil energy was unique to aberrations.
If Raijin Company was using the evil energy inside aberrations, then it wouldn’t have evolved into something like the brain-control chips in sci-fi stories that could manipulate all humanity.
But how exactly Raijin Company was utilizing evil energy…?
Staring at the broken helmet she’d brought back, Yijinmo’s expression darkened.
At least from her understanding, academia was still clueless about what evil energy truly was, how it originated, or what it was used for.
The only certainty was the history it had engraved on humanity.
Records showed that evil energy first appeared twenty years ago and created humanity’s first batch of aberrations.
Though their numbers were few, their quality was high—by today’s standards, they were mostly level 4 and above.
Their rampages caused massive destruction in cities. The government sacrificed heavily to kill or contain them.
But that was only the beginning. More aberrations were born all over the world, severely impacting public security and economic development.
At the same time, mysterious familiars and magical girls sprang up like mushrooms after rain.
New rules and orders were born, dramatically changing the global landscape.
Even twenty years later, the conflict between old and new still persisted… the aristocrats of the White Night Castle were the best example of this.
“小 Yijie!!”
While the girl was still deep in thought, the door was pushed open, and a cheerful pink-haired little ball bounced inside.
“Vita?”
“Lord Tentacle?”
“Hehe, I knew Boss Yi would be skipping work at this hour.”
Ignoring Chunfeng beside her, Vita immediately leapt into Yijinmo’s familiar embrace.
“Don’t be silly, I just had to come back suddenly for something!”
She still had to return to the castle to find Miss Luo later.
If she played too long, she might end up spending the night at someone’s place again.
Wait… wasn’t she supposed to be accompanying someone tonight?
Hm… never mind, she couldn’t remember. Probably not anyone important.
“Anyway, I’m definitely not skipping work!”
“Alright, alright, Boss Yi isn’t skipping work, but I didn’t come here to talk about that.”
The little loli said as she pulled out a stack of documents from under her skirt, slapping them onto the table.
“After receiving your message, I went to ask some of the big sisters I hang out with to get info on the aberrations recently.”
“Guess what?”
“One of the ‘small fry’ big sisters who works at the police station drunkenly bragged to me about the real identities of those aberrations!”
“?!”
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